Days of Open Hand

by Captain Katie-cat

The year 2047; a healthy dose of X-Men and Voyager. A woman with extraordinary abilities realizes she knows very little about life, the universe, and everything when she is rescued by a group of metahumans led by a particularly captivating team captain.

11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 69

Annika pressed her left hand to her silver clothed, ridged midsection as she looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror that was attached to one of the walls of her stripped down bedroom. The nervousness she felt about her first real combat situation unsettled her stomach, but with a deep breath she resolved herself to the decision she had made to be brought into Janeway's mission. To fight alongside the woman she loved.

Annika's butterflies now were caused by anticipation for where her relationship with Kathryn was heading. She didn't want to be overly naïve, but she thought that despite the dangers facing them Voyager's team would be successful. Annika had already seen what a capable and powerful leader Janeway. Perhaps they would even be able to keep their seven o'clock date.

The windows of Annika's bedrooms shattered the moment before she let out a scream of surprise. She fell to the ground as the building shook around her. Annika slowly rose from the carpeted floor and uncovered her ears after the thunderous sound had passed.

"Kathryn!" Annika's metal exoskeleton slipped-over her slim form as she sprinted from the debris filled bedroom. She stopped only when she saw the first piece of wreckage that was obviously from Nechayev's very distinct shuttlecraft. "Oh my God."

Annika felt numb as she moved in a daze through the flaming rubble. She could barely let out a gasp of surprise when a small hand grabbed her ankle and she was pulled beneath the ground. She couldn't breathe as she moved quickly through the earth. Annika tried to grasp at the soil and root systems, but her metallic hands passed through everything she attempted to touch. She began to relax when she realized who had hold of her.

The gray-carpeted floor of the shuttle seemed to drift gently up to meet her as Naomi continued to use her phasing ability. Annika took a deep breath when she felt solid ground once again beneath her feet.

"Naomi! I thought you were dead." Annika knelt in front of the small strawberry blonde who looked determined not to cry. She hugged Naomi as tightly as she dared while in her metal form. "What happened?"

"Relativity." Nechayev limped forward, blood dripped from a cut above her left eyebrow. "He created a temporal bomb so we couldn't depart until it had detonated."

Annika felt relief wash over her when the aft section doors opened to reveal the rest of the Voyager student body. She could also see that Nechayev's two adjuncts, Stadi and Vorik, were working at the helm. There was one person missing that immediately overpowered her relief with terror. "Where's Kathryn?"

"We don't know." Vorik's voice was even but filled Annika with ice-cold fear.

"Well we have to go back up to the surface!" Annika looked frantically at the others. Her awareness that she probably shouldn't be so crazed in front of the children eluded her. "We have to find her!"

Nechayev grabbed hold of Annika and moved her away from the others in order to chastise her lack of composure. "Calm yourself. We have to discover what has occurred first."

"We have access to the grid." Stadi's calm, alto tones broke through Annika's sharp fear and shifted her attention away from Nechayev's stern glare.

"Have you found the captain?" Henry moved next to his sister, Beatrice, behind the two cockpit seats in order to see for himself what the sensor readings were. His expression was stony as he saw the answer to his own question.

"There's no sign of her." Beatrice's self-possessed façade cracked a bit as her worried eyes turned to Nechayev.

"Contact Tasha Yar from the Saskatchewan School of Psionics, she will with no doubt be able to find Katya faster than the satellites in orbit." Nechayev absently brushed drying blood from her forehead before a wave of her hand drew Annika's attention to her.

"You must stay calm." Nechayev's voice was low enough not to be overheard by the others, but strong enough that Annika felt the whip of command within it. "The children will not benefit from your lack of composure. We will find Katya. They will not have killed her yet."

"Oh, yes, thank you! How could I not stay calm now?" The worry Annika felt clutching her chest in a vice grip made her tone derisive and sharp though she did keep her voice low. "We need to go look for her."

"And we will once we have her location, but for now we must not lose our heads."

"What's that sound?" Mezoti looked confused as a rumbling noise drew her attention away from Stadi's communiqué with Tasha Yar.

Henry moved away from the others to use his enhanced hearing to discern if there was indeed a noise or if it was merely Mezoti's imagination. The sound so similar to a drill told him it was the former.

"Switch to the underground perimeter net." Icheb tore off his portable holographic emitter as he readied himself for a fight. A plume of smoke emitted from between his sharpened teeth as adrenaline coursed hotly through him.

"Janeway's in D.C." Stadi initiated launch procedures after she disconnected her call to Yar. "She's alive."

Annika wasn't entirely composed despite the fact that she now knew Janeway was alive. It was who abducted her and for what purpose that caused her unsettled stomach and constricted chest. Her anxiety made her transformation more sluggish than usual, but she managed to absorb the metal exoskeleton after taking a few deep, calming breaths. Despite her worry for Janeway she knew she had to remain cool, calm and collected for the children's sake and her own.

"Are you all alright?" Annika carefully modulated her voice to keep the anger and fear she felt from being obvious as she looked the children over for any sign of injury. She was relieved to see none.

"Obviously." Mezoti shrugged as she leaned against the curved gray bulkhead and crossed her arms over her chest. Annika could see that the stalwart little girl had been crying by her red-rimmed eyes and the high color in her cheeks.

Azan and Rebi remained silent though their hands were turning to ice and fire, respectively. Annika wondered if they were practicing or if it was merely a nervous reaction on their parts. She almost hoped it was the latter since she knew a battle was imminent and the children would most likely want to be a part of it. Annika wondered if it was hypocritical or presumptuous to want to prevent them from demanding their place in the fight.

Icheb was seated at one of the powered down stations with his portable emitter masking his true appearance. Annika thought he looked even more solemn than usual and knew why as his eyes drifted to Beatrice.

The Burleighs were whispering to one another, but Annika heard snippets of their conversation. Her assumption had been correct. They did want to be included. Annika also noticed how Beatrice's attention would drift away from her brother to Icheb, but only when he wasn't looking. Annika almost laughed aloud at the teenage drama that was taking place, but then she remembered her own behavior towards Kathryn and remained quiet.

"Will you tell me what happened?" Annika turned to Naomi who sat silently and very still next to her. She laid a gentle hand on Naomi's shoulder and smiled sympathetically when the little girl wrapped her small arms around her. Annika hugged her back and relaxed against the bulkhead as she smoothed down Naomi's hair with a gentle hand.

"We were on the shuttle. It was like we were asleep and when we woke up there was a blue ball of light in the middle of the shuttle. I didn't know what it was, but some of the others did. Director Nechayev told Mezoti and me to concentrate on the shuttle and everyone in it."

"You and Mezoti saved everyone. That was a very brave thing to do."

"But we don't know what happened to Captain Janeway." Naomi looked up at Annika with carefully held tears in her eyes. "Do you think she's okay?"

A low snort preceded Mezoti's harsh words. "Of course she's not okay. Don't be stupid."

"Mezoti." Annika's tone would have been more chastising if she hadn't just heard the little girl's voice waver and seen the tears in her light brown eyes. "Please, come here."

Mezoti looked skeptical before she hesitantly seated herself next to Annika. Mezoti's posture was stiff and unyielding when Annika embraced her until the first tear escaped. Annika tightened her hold on both Naomi and Mezoti in an attempt to silently reassure them and herself.

"Hey, Captain Janeway's one of the most powerful people on the planet." Icheb kneeled in front of Annika, Mezoti, and Naomi. His reassuring tone was reinforced by his resolute expression. "Don't worry. We'll find her."

Annika smiled gently at the young man's genuine care and compassion. Her smile also conveyed her gratitude for the comfort she received from his words as well. She hugged Mezoti and Naomi closer to her to stave off the ice-cold worry that threatened to overwhelm her. She hoped with all her heart that Icheb's words were true.

The hour and forty-seven minutes it took to cover the wide distance between San Francisco and Washington D.C. passed mostly in silence within the solemn shuttle. Nechayev's communiqués continuous attempts to contact Chakotay's team and the hum of the ship were the only sounds emitted.

Annika's fear for what had happened to the Voyager team made her alert and tense. She hoped it was a technological malfunction rather than a sign that they were in trouble or worse. Despite this hope, Annika knew that it probably wasn't a malfunction. The metal shifted beneath her pale flesh as they neared D.C.

"We will be arriving in fifteen minutes." Nechayev's voice pulled the students from their reveries as she moved from the cockpit to the passenger section. "Stadi and Vorik will take you to Russia. Annika, you are with me. "

Annika gently released her hold on Mezoti and Naomi before she stood with what she hoped was a resolute expression. This, she supposed, had been what she wanted. Except Kathryn wasn't by her side. Annika's fury ignited anew at the thought of members of the Friends for Humanity harming Kathryn in any way. The metal plating across her forearms sprouted four metal spikes from her elbow to her wrist. Annika looked at them with some surprise and then with quick acceptance. Weird seemed to be part of the job.

"I want to stay and fight." Mezoti's voice broke Annika out of her momentary reverie.

Naomi looked cautiously defiant and not near as quarrelsome as Mezoti, but her voice was just as sure. "We can help."

It was difficult to tell what the characteristically impassive twin boys thought. That was until they stood in unison and powered up.

"I'm eighteen." Beatrice stood with what was a close approximation of a Janeway stance: chin defiantly up, eyes ablaze, and hands on her waist. "You can't tell me what to do."

Nechayev seemed taken aback by the criticism and the sardonic tone, but then she smirked and nodded her head. "I am impressed by your passion. Do not allow yourself to be killed because of it."

"We're not just kids." Henry was filled with equal determination as his sister as he stood next to her to face off Nechayev. "We've been trained well."

"Yes, I can see that." Nechayev took in the group of students with pride. They were not her own, but they had the fire her students in Russia sometimes lacked. Her students weren't living in a country so filled with hatred for metahumans and sometimes Nechayev worried that it made them soft. She could easily see the students who stood defiantly against her were anything but soft. "But this will not be your holodeck with the safeties turned on. Some of you might not survive."

"There are worse things than death." Icheb removed his portable emitter and tossed it away indifferently. The lights of the shuttle reflected off the dark green scales of his skin and he shone like marble. The fire within his body made his eyes glow white-hot and plumes of smoke emitted from his mouth.

"So there is." Nechayev grinned and nodded her head in approval.

Annika quickly followed after Nechayev as the Russian director re-entered the cockpit. "Do you think that's a good idea? They're just kids."

"I do not mean to insult you, but these 'kids' have extensive field experience compared to what it is you possess." Nechayev's warm breath brushed across Annika's ear as she drew closer and her voice lowered to a whisper. "Whoever has Katya has a considerable amount of power and knowledge. They infiltrated the Voyager Institute and seized perhaps the most powerful metahuman on the planet. We are all in danger. These children are fully aware that despite their young age they are not immune to what is occurring. What you must now concentrate on is being useful and not getting in their way."

Annika nodded silently. Her voice caught in her throat and her jaw tensed as she hoped to stave off the feeling of inadequacy Nechayev's words filled her with.

"Incoming weapons fire." Vorik's calm, even tones seemed misplaced Annika thought before her head buzzed with worry. "Contact in two minutes."

It wasn't until Nechayev's low, frantic voice sounded that she understood what was occurring. "Open the hatch!"

"Hey, wait!" Annika's outburst was ignored as Nechayev made her way to the passenger section.

"Strap in. It is about to get very windy." Nechayev took a deep breath before she leapt from the shuttle.

"Where're you going?" Annika's voice whipped around her much like her blonde tresses as she yelled after Nechayev from the open doorway. "Where the hell do you two think you're going?"

Icheb and Henry ignored Annika's outraged inquiry as they moved towards the doorway instead of strapping in like the rest of the children. Annika could only gawk in shock as the two young men jumped from the shuttle.

"Oh, damn it!" Annika felt helpless and inept as she looked after Icheb and Henry as they defended the ship.

"You shouldn't swear."

Annika slowly turned towards Mezoti who had such a look of haughtiness that it took her some effort not to go straight over to the little girl and shake the look away.

"They'll be okay, Annika. Don't worry." Naomi smiled reassuringly. Annika frankly didn't know what to be more bothered by Mezoti's smug look or Naomi's confident grin.

"Are those—are those missiles!" Annika quickly backed away from the open hatch that was closed again with a forceful palm to the hatch control. She fell on her back atop the gray-carpeted floor as the shuttle rocked around her. "Oh my God!"

Annika ran to the cockpit so she could see the mayhem that was occurring outside. She let the deep breath she had been holding out when she saw that Nechayev, Henry, and Icheb appeared to be unharmed. Henry's sonic scream was at a decibel that was unheard but destructive nonetheless. The small assault missiles shattered beneath the force of his voice. Nechayev used bolts of lightning to destroy any missiles fired, which caused flashes of light to flood the cockpit. Annika shook her head in an attempt to remove the stars from her eyes. She was successful in time to see Icheb catch one of the foot-long missiles fired at him before he hurled it back from whence it came. It was at that very moment that Annika realized just how immensely out of her league she was.

Stadi's anxious voice brought Annika out of her reverie. "We're sitting ducks up here!"

"Understood."

Vorik's flat voice was beginning to seriously annoy Annika. She would have perhaps expressed this irritation if she weren't so busy trying to stay on her feet as the shuttle quickly descended. The ship continued to shunt under the force of obliterated missiles even as the small vessel finally landed.

Annika moved closer to the cockpit window as the scope of the battle occurring in front of the White House was seen for the first time. She could just make out B'Elanna covered in blood in the throng of a street brawl with twenty or so black-garbed militants. The grounds were filled with the Voyager team fighting against hundreds of heavily armed members of the Friends of Humanity. The fighting spilled out into the streets where members of the US military were trying to corral protesters, pro-metahuman and anti-metahuman alike, to a safer distance from the fray. Marines were fighting against a group of metahumans Annika didn't recognize. What she could discern even from the shuttle's distance was that they were probably not members of the UFM. These metahumans didn't pull their punches. Fallen soldiers mingled with civilians upon the blacktop of Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution Avenue.

"My God." Annika's words were almost forced out of her on a low burst of breath. The world around her seemed to turn black. She could hear the blood thrumming caused by her heart's rapid beating.

"Annika." Stadi placed a gentle hand upon the shell-shocked woman's shoulder to gain her attention. "We've got to go. Now."

Annika nodded absently, still shaken by what they were about to enter into, before she followed Vorik and Stadi into the aft section to collect the children. She stood silently to the side as Stadi and Vorik tried to insist that the younger children wait in the relative safety of the shuttle until transport by Harry Kim could be obtained, somehow through the chaos and the lack of communications capability.

Nechayev stamped down the children's resistance and indignation quickly after she re-entered the shuttle. Annika knew the Russian director had lost all of her bluster, her conceit and her patience. The sharp voice convinced the children that now was not the time to resist. Annika understood that with this particular woman it was probably always futile to attempt to do so.

"Vorik. Stadi. Find Kim." Nechayev's eyes were fully white as threads of blue energy crackled along her body, which made her two aides comply immediately. Annika had to admit it made for an intimidating sight. She was very glad Nechayev and she were on the same side. Annika was startled when the Russian director pulled her aside. "Perhaps it would be a good idea if you joined the children away from this fight."

"What do you mean?" Annika felt her concern for Janeway overcome her shock and fear so her voice came out indignant at the suggestion that she would in essence abandon ship when it got tough. "I'm staying."

"You do not fully understand the situation. It is more dangerous than anyone could possibly have imagined." Nechayev's voice held disbelief before she forced confidence in her usually commanding tones. "The Obsidian Order is collaborating with the Friends of Humanity."

"I thought the Obsidian Order hated humans. And as a rule the Friends of Humanity aren't too fond of metahumans either." Annika's brow furrowed as she tried to imagine the two most extreme groups somehow coming together. Much less to overthrow the United States government. "I don't understand."

"Nor do I."

Nechayev's words did nothing to ease the growing concern Annika felt as a cold weight on her chest. She was thankful to have her attention diverted to the glowing purple vortex that opened in the middle of the shuttle.

Harry Kim followed Vorik and Stadi out of the swirling portal looking a bit worse for wear. He had a large cut above his right eye and painful red burns on the left side of his boyish face. Harry's features shifted from a stiff stoicism to a reassuring soft look as he approached the group of children.

Annika's attention was split between the forced cheerfulness Harry was projecting for the sake of the students and Vorik's report to Nechayev. When she heard "the Captain" being referred to all of her attention was on Vorik.

"Slider and the others thought the captain was with us. They do not know where she is." Vorik's impassive voice quieted as to not be overheard by the students purposefully herded by Harry to the far end of the shuttle. "They are very concerned."

Annika shook her head. She was beginning to feel sick and light headed. Where could Kathryn be? And perhaps more importantly who had her? What were they doing to her? Annika was definitely sick when grotesque images invaded her mind. She's was beginning to perspire and her face had a deathly pallor. She barely registered the touch of a small hand on her forearm.

"I wish we could stay and help. When you do find Captain Janeway will you tell her that we wanted to, but we were overruled?" Naomi looked up at her with a small smile and with such a look of astuteness that Annika could do nothing less than feel fortified by her words of subtle encouragement and comfort.

In a flash of purple light Harry Kim and the children were gone. In the time it took Harry to return to the shuttle, Annika's metal exoskeleton was in place.

"Both the Obsidian Order and Senator Hayes have reason to seek revenge against her." Harry added his input as to who was holding the captain.

"Just because his Bill was rejected?" Stadi wore a bemused expression as she wondered what a US Senator would have to hold again Janeway.

"Shortly after the President's speech evidence was released indicting Senator Hayes and other Senators of a multitude of federal crimes including illegal arms dealing." Harry almost smiled. He knew Janeway's handiwork when he saw it. He only wished she was right there next to him and feeling us vindicated against the toxic Senator.

"I will hand it straight to Katya, she is very thorough." Nechayev smiled only briefly. "I do not believe it is Hayes pulling these particular strings. No no. He is not capable even with his many heavily armed men to overcome the Voyager Institute's defenses nor the ability to capture someone so powerful as Janeway."

Annika let out a relieved breath. It didn't last long though after Nechayev answered her query. "Then who is it? Who has her?"

"Someone worse and far, far more dangerous."

CHAPTER 70

Kathryn Janeway grimaced at the coppery taste of blood on her tongue and the throbbing bruise left by Kashyk, all of which did nothing to encourage her to open her eyes. She groaned against the painful fatigue she felt throughout her body, deep into her bones, which made even the slightest movement agonizing. Janeway let out a cry of pain when she was hoisted to her feet by strong, rough hands. She stumbled due to her own exhaustion and because of the metal shackles around her ankles and attached by a sturdy, thin metal rod to her handcuffed wrists. Despite the near debilitating pain she felt throughout her body, Janeway eventually recovered her equilibrium. Her eyes opened slowly to face the chamber's harsh green light. The smirking person that met her created an ice-cold chill that shook her petite form.

"Regina?" The name was forced between Janeway's lips on a sharp gasp of disbelief and horror. She wasn't prepared when metal fingers grasped her chin harshly that caused a fresh rush of pain through her body. Her already shaky balance was destabilized and it was only her captors' unyielding hold on her arms that kept her on her feet. Janeway couldn't turn her face away from Regina despite her repulsion to the countenance before her.

Thick silver eyes seemed to penetrate Janeway to her very core. The sickly green-lit pallor of Regina's face took away from the natural beauty the woman possessed, but Janeway still recognized her features. What was less recognizable was the way in which the hairless, blue-veined skin of Regina's scalp was pulled tightly back by smooth black tentacle-like cables that connected to a silver metal port at the top of her head. Janeway forced her eyes to lower to take in the sickening reality that Regina's form was more technological than biological. From Regina's bare collarbones down was all a metal construct; a black and hard facsimile of a petite feminine form.

"Leave us." Regina's voice was as cold and metallic as the hand that still held Janeway's chin.

Janeway barely prevented herself from falling upon the harsh metal floor when the two eerily quiet and masked beings had relinquished their firm hold on her arms. Blood pounded soundly in her ears and she felt her heart beating rapidly within her chest as Regina continued to bore into her with a prosecutorial glare.

"I can smell her on you." Regina removed her hand from Janeway's strong chin before she pulled the woman to her metal body that elicited a cry of pain. She took pleasure in that sound. "You are supposed to be mine."

"And you're supposed to be dead." Janeway thought perhaps that wasn't the smartest thing to say as Regina's already harsh hold on her arms grew tighter and more painful. The truth was she had never been frightened of Regina for herself, only for others. It didn't differ now for her concern was solely centered on Annika.

"Unfortunately for you I'm not that easy to kill." Regina's voice was cold, but soft and her warm breath wafted across Janeway's face as she moved her own closer. "Though I do give you high marks for trying."

"What do you want, Regina?" Janeway wondered if it was adrenaline alone that kept her voice strong and her stance stubbornly erect as she faced off against the woman that elicited complex emotions within her. A part of her wanted to rejoice in the fact that Regina was still alive despite the extreme danger the woman posed. She felt some of her deeply held guilt being to lighten. And regret that Regina was still alive and as dangerous as she was two years ago.

"My goals have not changed." Regina's gray lips were turned up into a smile though her eyes lacked the warmth to make it anything other than a cold grin. "Just my methods in achieving them."

"What have you done?" Janeway's voice was low, raspy, but had a glint of threat in her deep timbre. She ignored the pain in her body as her stormy eyes met Regina's full on. "Tell me!"

Janeway felt the air rush out of her lungs as she fell hard onto her back atop the cold, unforgiving metal floor. Crimson colored blood spilled from the cut on her lip and mingled with the dried remains of the strike delivered by Kashyk that had rendered her unconscious. She groaned aloud as she rolled onto her side and tried to regain her breath.

"You do not demand things from me." Regina stood high and imposing above Janeway with wrath clearly displayed upon her features and real threat in her voice. "There are only a limited number of reasons why I'm keeping you alive. I should kill you for what you did to me."

"I did what I had to." Janeway managed to stand, though on unsteady feet. "You were responsible for so much death, Regina. So much pain. I couldn't let you kill any more innocent people."

"They aren't innocent." Regina voice took on a scornful, frustrated tone as she moved slowly, fluidly around the stiffly standing Janeway. "How many times do I have to explain that to you? They're vermin who are standing in the way of us taking our rightful place as rulers of this planet. Why can't you of all people understand that? We're not Homo sapiens, we're homo superior. It's evolution. The survival of the fittest."

"I know you, Regina." Janeway stood very still, but her sharp gray gaze followed Regina's movements. "This isn't about the next stage of human development, of taking our 'right place'. It's about you. How… damaged you are. How hurt. The immense pain you have always carried with you. What your parents, what you went though is unconscionable, but the people who you hurt today won't take away that pain."

Janeway tried not to recoil when she felt cold metal fingers run along her back. It wasn't until she felt a warm draft upon her upper back that she was informed of how sharp the metal nails on Regina's fingers were. She bit off a gasp as Regina used a gentler touch to outline the pale white scars that marred her back.

"You know nothing of my pain. The animal who inflicted these wounds was not your father. Or your mother. I killed them both. That's what you do with dangerous animals."

"They're not animals. They're people. No matter what they've done."

"You're still so unbearably self-righteous. Superior. Well I have the power now. You have none." Regina moved to stand in front of Janeway before she placed a metal hand on top of the device that negated Janeway's abilities. She smirked as her mirrored silver eyes lifted from Janeway's upper chest to stormy troubled eyes. "How does it feel?"

Janeway's shackled wrists prevented her from touching the source of her weakened state. It was a device that was obviously crafted by Regina. The similarities to the regeneration alcove they had built together were evident in its physical makeup and the green-lit power signature. Janeway had to admit it was a brilliant device. One that seemed to be created solely to debilitate her and it had succeeded. Regina always did have an aptitude of fully understanding people's abilities especially Janeway's.

"Is that why you're holding me here? To gloat? To make me suffer for what I did? So be it. Just don't—please, don't hurt anyone else." Janeway's thoughts immediately went to Annika. She knew how vindictive Regina could be and worried for Annika's safety far more than her own.

"The great Kathryn Janeway pleading?" Regina's cold voice was filled with scorn and contempt as her lips pulled into a sneer. "Whom are you begging for? Your students? Your comrades? No, I know the girlfriend. How… sweet."

"Leave her alone." Janeway was surprised that her vehement words caused a soft chuckle to emit from Regina.

"I won't hurt her." Regina stopped close behind Janeway, her warm breath wafted across the back of the other woman's neck as she whispered the next part. "I created her."

CHAPTER 71

Annika took a bullet to the chest as she stalked quickly towards the Oval Office. The young security guard continued to fire until the soft clicks of his gun indicated his bullets had run out. He shook as he tried desperately to reload his gun while keeping his wide blue eyes on the advancing metallic-looking woman.

"We're here to help." Annika tried to smile reassuringly, but the guard had obviously been overwhelmed by the situation and started to fire at her again. With the back of her hand and as softly as she could she knocked him out cold. "Poor guy."

In a series of purple flashes of light and energy Harry Kim transported yet another guard to a more secure location in case the White House became ground zero for the destruction of the United States of America. It was beginning to look inevitable now with the massive coup d'état Hayes was perpetuating after seventeen hundred federal arrest warrants were issued including his own. Annika kept herself fortified by the mission of seeing to the President's safety and somehow finding Kathryn Janeway. It was what kept her going. And she had to admit at least to herself that the latter was more of a necessity to her, but she couldn't find Kathryn on her own. She needed people like Nechayev. So she pressed on.

"Stand behind me." Nechayev's eyes turned white as blue electricity sparked from her hands.

The wall of the outer office crumbled and fell away from the onslaught of wind and devastating electrical discharge. Bullets fired by the twenty-two black suited men and woman who were the President's secret service detail were contained within a small vortex of wind and rain until ten minutes had passed and the bullets in their guns ran out. The mini-hurricane dissipated into a trickle of silver bullets upon the blue-carpeted floor of the Oval Office.

"I am Alynna Nechayev. I come in peace on behalf of Kathryn Janeway and the United Federation of Metahumans." Nechayev's eyes were still white in case her words did not ease the trigger happy Americans before her. "I am here to protect your President Bacco."

"Stand down." Bacco emerged from behind a throng of Secret Service men and women. Her order was immediately obeyed though her security detail maintained highly anticipatory of an attack.

"Madame President, we can transport you and your staff to a secure location. We should do this immediately." Nechayev motioned for Harry to open a portal.

"We're not going in there!" Phiri's high-pitched voice was louder and more repulsed than she had meant it to sound. The purple light that formed above the presidential seal was like nothing she had ever seen and frankly she would have been happy not see it now. "I mean… that's, that's crazy. Isn't it?"

"It's kind of crazy, yeah." MacDougan's smile reached his eyes as he carefully took Phiri's trembling hand in his. "But I'm willing to trust it. I'm pretty sure if they wanted us dead we would be."

"That's what I love about you, Fred, your unceasing optimism." Kant rubbed his sweaty palm over his forearm nervously as he looked askance at the glowing purple specter in the middle of the Oval Office. "I'm not going in there. We have no idea where it goes. It could be a trap."

Piñiero looked to the President who also seemed doubtful of the portal to who-knows-where. She thought she also saw a hint of curiosity as well. "Madam President?"

As the White House shook to its very foundation from the war that was taking place outside President Bacco felt a sharp sense of failure but not regret. She had chosen to stand on her principles and to veto Hayes' bill. She would do it again despite the dire situations her beloved nation was in. She looked at the group of metahumans before her and found nothing but urgency for her well being in their expressions, in their eyes. Her instincts were telling her to trust and so she did.

"All right. We'll go with you." Bacco looked pointed at her anxious staff. "All of us. Now."

Harry nodded and tried to look stoic and confident. "Link hands, hold on tight and follow me."

Annika felt relief wash over her that the President and her staff were now secure. That relief was quickly replaced by dread. The walls of the Oval Office were quickly losing structural integrity. A final blow from an unknown weapon made the walls give way completely. Despite her apprehension she stood strong and sure with Nechayev, Stadi, and Vorik.

The influx of charging militants were pushed back by winds that swept them off their feet and several yards away. The respite provided the small metahuman cadre to enter the fray unencumbered by shots being fired at them, for the moment.

Annika could smell the burning of the air as lightning shot from Nechayev's hands and molten rock flowed from Vorik's which impacted several small, but heavily armed attack jeeps utilized by the Friends of Humanity. Men screamed as they leapt from the vehicles.

"It's about time you guys got here." B'Elanna easily tossed a red-faced and cursing member of the FoH at Annika. He collided into her metal figure with enough force that he fell unconscious onto the grassy lawn.

Annika rolled her eyes at the unnecessary fun B'Elanna was having even as she felt a great sense of relief that she would be fighting alongside her.

B'Elanna grabbed the barrel of a rifle even as it shot a bullet into her side and used the butt of it to smash in the black mask of her assailant and with that his nose and consciousness as well. She used the same weapon to bludgeon two more would-be attackers. She wasn't even out of breath as she spoke loudly to overcome the cacophony of the battle. "Kes and Tuvok are trying to locate Janeway."

Annika wasn't comforted by B'Elanna's words. She wanted Kathryn found now. She needed to know if she was all right. And if she wasn't Annika wasn't sure she would be able to pull her punches as she was doing at the moment.

A roar sounded high above her emitted by a streak of black and orange. Annika turned quickly to see Neelix, in the form of a massive and powerful tiger, as he leapt upon two unpleasantly surprised black-garbed men.

"Don't worry, Annika. We'll find the captain." Neelix's reassuring smile displayed large teeth and his usually nasally voice was made lower by the growl that seemed to constantly rumble deep within his feline form. His smile had barely faded before he shape shifted into a creature Annika had never even imagined before. It looked like a mix between a massive red-scaled dragon and a powerfully beaked brown-feathered hawk.

Annika barely registered the barrage of bullets that struck her metal form harmlessly as shock caused her to stand frozen with her mouth agape. It wasn't until B'Elanna shouted for her to get her head in the game that Annika could finally pull her large eyes away from Neelix's literally alien form.

A roar of rage emitted from Annika as she saw whom B'Elanna was fighting. It was the same hideous man who had impaled Janeway with a bony spear that had nearly cost the woman her life. B'Elanna had several of Culluh's razor-sharp spikes in her body and Annika could see that the poison was having a devastating effect on even the seemingly invincible B'Elanna Torres.

A volley of bony projectiles bounced off of Annika and she nearly smiled at the look on Culluh's boned face. She did smile when her metal fist smashed his expression in. Annika helped pull Culluh's spikes from B'Elanna's body before she helped the blood-drenched woman from the red-tinted ground.

"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy that." B'Elanna grinned toothily as she wiped blood from her lips. Her wounds healed completely while Annika smiled agreeably in response. A grim look soon overshadowed B'Elanna's jesting. "Things have gone to hell."

"What do we do?"

"Take them out and not get killed in the process." B'Elanna pulled Annika to the ground as a shock grenade whizzed past them and collided with one of the assault jeeps. The militants within the disempowered jeep came out of the armored vehicle firing their rifles at the military men and women guarding civilians while still trying to fight off members of the Obsidian Order.

"Come on!"

Annika followed B'Elanna to where Billy Telfer was standing in defense of the crowd of protestors both pro- and anti-metahuman and their would-be protectors. The air around Billy shimmered and sparked when hit by gunfire and attacks by members of the Obsidian Order alike.

"I'm not going to be able to hold them off much longer." Billy's voice shook from the strain of his continuous force field generation and sweat streamed down his boyish face.

"Stay with it, ZeroG." Lyndsay pushed her way through the throng of combat-dressed men and woman. "The evacuation vehicles will get here in ten minutes and an air strike is on its way."

"An air strike! Are they insane?" B'Elanna ignored the angry and scared shouts of the crowd as she took in the battle-laden streets. "We need to get this situation under control. Now. We can't keep pulling our punches anymore."

"The captain wouldn't want that." Billy's voice indicated that he didn't care for that idea either.

"She's not here is she?" B'Elanna's voice was a low growl and her hands were tight fists in front of her. "We need to end this fight as quickly as possible. And we won't be able to do that unless we take them out as fast as we can and yeah that'll mean a few people will die. But if that air strike goes bad there'll be a lot more deaths before this thing is over."

Annika turned away from B'Elanna's argument with Lyndsay and Billy to take in the battle. Chakotay, in full wolf form, was obviously restraining himself though he was able to take out three heavily armed men though he received a few damaging shots to his thick hide in the process. And it seemed that for every one militant he took down three more came after him. As his coat was matted with his own blood his movements were slowing down.

Tom was zooming like a comet low enough to the ground to intercept shock grenades and other projectile armaments. Annika worried he wasn't moving as quickly as she had seen him fly before nor was his flaming trail as bright and powerful as it usually was either.

Massive uprooted trees were Celes' weapons of choice. She used their heavy weight and large limbs to swat away cadres of militants and vehicles alike. But like Chakotay, the assailants continued to go after Celes.

It would be easy, Annika supposed, to go along with B'Elanna's seemingly logical suggestion. The Friends of Humanity and the Obsidian Order were certainly not caring about the increasing death toll. Annika was almost ashamed it wasn't her conscience, but thoughts of Kathryn that caused her to vehemently disagree with B'Elanna. She was at least partially aware of what Kathryn Janeway had been forced to endure and to suffer through at the hands of humans and yet she always maintained a non-lethal protocol when it came to dealing with threats. Annika didn't know how the fight would turn out, but she had to believe that they couldn't lose their humanity trying to win it.

B'Elanna's loud and colorful suggestions as to where Annika could put her humanity were drowned out by the arrival of three shuttles suspended above the ruined White House.

Annika's heart sank and fear caused an icy lump to form in the pit of her stomach as she took in Lyndsay and B'Elanna's wide eyes. "What is it?"

Lyndsay's lips pulled up into a half grin before she smiled completely and turned her wide hazel eyes to Annika. "It's the cavalry."

Before Annika could ask what the hell that meant her attention was diverted to the fact that all the guns held by the Friends of Humanity and even the U.S. military were wrenched out of hands and pulled high into the air. The person responsible for the display of magnetism was finally revealed as a side hatch opened in one of the small aircrafts. He was a dark featured man who looked to be in his late thirties garbed in a black combat suit with dark teal piping that matched the visible magnetic field surrounding him, which facilitated his flight. Many of the people on the ground scattered as the massive ball of mangled weapons fell to the grassy lawn.

"Ah, Americans do love their guns." Julian Bashir descended to the ground along with the three shuttles. Nechayev, whose electrical storms had finally abated, soon met him.

Annika thought the Russian director seemed to have regained her haughty demeanor after the people from the landed shuttles began to roundup both members of the Friends of Humanity and the Obsidian Order. The latter provided more resistance, but were subdued by a series of stunning phaser fire.

Sirens filled the mid-day sky and with it Annika began to feel the situation was finally coming to an end except for one vital part. Kathryn Janeway was still nowhere to be found. She wondered if the others were being over-confident or that she wasn't being confident enough in Janeway's capabilities. B'Elanna's almost disappointed but mostly grudgingly relieved expression was the last thing Annika saw before her perception turned green.

CHAPTER 72

"My God, Regina, what have you done?" Janeway's voice was quiet due to fatigue and the icy fear she felt throughout her petite frame.

"Two years ago I found her on the verge of death, comatose, after a car accident." Regina smiled cruelly as she slowly ran her cold, metal fingers across Janeway's face as if they were lovers. "She was powerful, but untested and unknown to the UFM, a perfect subject for the acceleration process. I had the ideal specimen for my purposes until your intervention."

"What you and Moset did was—"

Janeway cried out in pain when Regina lifted her off her feet by a hard, metal hand around her throat and pushed her against a nearby bulkhead.

"Spare me your self-righteous recriminations." Regina's warm breath wafted across Janeway's pained face as she pressed her unforgiving metallic body against her. "You have never seen the world realistically. We are at war with the humans. We have been since they first became aware of our existence. It's a fantasy to think we can ever live in peace with them. They're animals that we should rule over."

"That hate will lead us to a world war." Janeway's body was far too exhausted to struggle within Regina's grasp. She barely had enough energy to speak.

"It's already begun." Regina enjoyed the flush of anger that reddened Janeway's cheeks and the worry that inspired stormy gray eyes. She pressed her cold, gray lips to Janeway's with a passion that seemed incongruent with her inhuman form. She bit Janeway's bottom lip before she retreated from the other woman's unresponsive lips. "You are mine now."

"That's what you've always thought, Regina, and that's why I never could be." A determined glint infused Janeway glare with steel. "I will resist."

"It'll be futile." Regina dropped Janeway to the steel plated floor unable to face the repulsed expression upon Janeway's features and unwilling to show it. Janeway landed on the deck with a groan and with a pain that soon took away her consciousness.

Regina moved to her control console in the center of the circular green-lit chamber and after inputting a series of commands the transportation apparatus glowed green before it deposited a surprised Annika Hansen.

"Kathryn!" Annika overcame her confusion quickly upon seeing Janeway bloodied and unconscious, crumpled on the floor with metal shackles on her wrists and ankles. Unaware and uncaring of anything but getting to Janeway, Annika sprinted across the metal deck to kneel next to the fallen leader. Annika watched with worry constricting her chest as Kathryn's eyes fluttered but resisted opening completely. "Oh my God. Kathryn?"

Annika shattered the titanium restraints as carefully as she could so as to not further damage Kathryn's vulnerable body. She absorbed the metal surrounding her right hand before she gently brushed away strands of blood-soaked hair from Janeway's sweat-drenched face.

"You've performed well." Regina saw that Annika had seemed to forget her presence because the other woman jerked upon hearing her voice.

"What have you done to her?" Annika's right hand was balled into a fist even as the metal plating recovered it. Fury and worry warred within her, but as she saw the inhuman looking woman approach Annika's anger won over.

Annika yowled in pain as her fleshy fist collided with Regina's black metal midsection. She cradled her hurting hand and looked at her pink flesh as if it were foreign to her. "How?"

"A power negator." Regina held up a green-lit circular device as she drew closer to Annika. She picked Annika up by her throat and held her close before she plunged two writhing tubules into her neck. Green energy coursed into Annika's body from Regina that caused her to scream out in agony and confusion as her mind, her consciousness, her individuality was taken over by the awesome will of Regina McQueen, known to others as the Borg Queen.

CHAPTER 73

Kathryn Janeway awoke slowly as if from a bad dream. She groaned aloud since the pain in her body indicated that fallacy was just wishful thinking on her part. A soft hand on her cheek was comforting and Janeway opened her eyes despite the harsh green lights of the chamber. She was relieved to see Annika smiling gently before her.

"Annika? You're all right." Janeway grasped the other woman's shoulders as she was helped to sit upright against the hard metal bulkhead. Warm, moist lips against her own muffled her gasp of surprise. Janeway allowed the pleasurable touch until it became more aggressive than comforting. "We need to get out of here. To contact Chakotay's team."

Annika hid her disgust at hearing Kathryn utter Chakotay's name and instead helped Janeway to her feet. Her hold on the weakened woman was broken when Janeway saw the downed body of Regina McQueen. Janeway knelt next to the unmoving form with a disturbed and saddened expression that broke through her attempts to maintain an impassive façade.

"What happened?" Janeway kept her lowered, stormy gray eyes on Regina's still features as she used a gentle hand to brush over pale eyelids. A pain of which she hadn't felt since she had been forced to stop Regina's plans in Iceland nearly two years ago caused her chest to constrict and tears to cloud her sight.

"She attacked me." Annika knelt next to Janeway and put an arm around the bereaved woman before she pulled her to her. "I didn't mean to kill her. I guess I just don't know my own strength yet. I'm sorry."

Janeway nodded absently. She appreciated Annika's words but found little comfort in them. She took one more moment to mourn her oldest friend and fiercest enemy before she stood up with grace despite her weakened state. "Come on. We should go."

"I was so frightened." Annika increased her hold around Kathryn not willing to allow extensive physical distance. "I wasn't sure if you were all right."

"I am." Janeway turned so she was facing Annika with a gentle smile of reassurance.

"I'm glad." Annika gently placed her lips upon Janeway's. The kiss escalated quickly and Janeway could only resist for a few moments before she gave into the passionate embrace. It soon became more passionate and into something that couldn't be finished onboard Regina's sphere. Janeway ended the kiss and placed a hand on the other woman's upper chest.

"I'm glad too. That you're all right." Janeway smiled and it began to reach her eyes. "We should really go. Rejoin the others."

"The others are fine. We've won." Annika's hold on Janeway wasn't hurtful, but it was unyielding even when Janeway tried to move away. "They're probably celebrating right now."

"Perhaps, but arrangements need to be made. Damage assessed. I need to talk to the President." Janeway tried once again to extract herself from Annika's hold, but with a grunt of frustration she ceased her actions. "Annika?"

"Of course. I'm sorry. You're probably right." Annika dropped her hands reluctantly to her side. She maintained an even expression as she watched Janeway make her way to the central control panel.

"I can't get into the system. It's all encrypted." Janeway nearly banged her hands upon the console in frustration. She couldn't even deactivate the power negator that kept her powerless. "We'll have to do this the hard way I guess. I need you to destroy this device."

Annika frowned as she looked at the green-lit circular piece of technology that rested upon Janeway's upper chest. "I don't want to hurt you."

"I've been through worse. Besides the doctor can heal whatever damage is done." Janeway smiled reassuringly as she placed Annika's hand on top of the green-lit device. "Please, do it."

Annika contemplated her hand and the piece of technology beneath it for a long moment before she made her decision. "I'm sorry, Kathryn, I can't. I won't intentionally cause you harm."

"Well." Kathryn pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead and sighed in resignation. She knew she could never force Annika to do anything against her will. That wasn't who she was. "That makes things a little more difficult doesn't it?"

"I suppose it does." Annika tried not to look too relieve as she watched Janeway brush her hand over her strong chin while she contemplated what to do next. "What do you want to do?"

"There should be escape pods on board that can be released without tapping into central command." Janeway smiled when she managed to force open a weapons locker. She extracted two compression phaser rifles that were nearly larger than she was. "We just need to get to them without running into any of Regina's drones."

"Don't worry." Annika smiled as her metallic armor surrounded her more smoothly than Janeway had ever seen. It was fluidic and graceful. When it was finished the green lights of the chamber shone off her silver metal body that was both beautiful and powerful. "I'll protect you."

"I believe you." One corner of Janeway's lips moved up into a lopsided grin. She hefted the two rifles so they were braced against her small frame. "Let's go."

Janeway led the way from the central chamber into the mass of green-lit corridors of dark black metal grids. Her slate gray eyes moved keenly across the terrain even as she wondered why it seemed that no one was aware that she had escaped and that Regina was dead. Her worry shifted when she fell to the unrelenting metal grating as the ship shook around her.

"What the hell!" Annika had maintained her footing and ran to the nearest console, input her command codes and brought up a holographic screen. "Damn it!"

Annika more felt than saw the rifle pointing at her. She smirked as she turned to face Janeway completely. "Surprise."

"Regina." Janeway's grip on the weapon in her hands was as firm and strong as her resolute expression. "How?"

"I told you Annika was preserved for my purposes." Regina within Annika's form lifted her hands in a presentational manner. "This is that purpose."

"But how did you—you underwent Moset's method." Janeway was sure of her assumption, but she was still appalled by the implications. Regina's assimilation capabilities had become something completely different than merely expertise and mastery of all things technological into the biological. "You can't do this, Regina."

"I already have." Regina moved towards Janeway but stopped when she heard the plasma chamber within the rifle charging up. "My body was dying. I required a new one. Annika Hansen was reengineered to fulfill that requirement. And would have if you hadn't gotten in my way in Reykjavik. It took more than a year for my nanobots to form a corporeal vessel for me. In that time the Obsidian Order maintained Annika's comatose state until I was ready to send her out into the world. To be saved. By you; old reliable Katie. You fell for her right away. Like I knew you would. I also know you can't kill me now. Knowing that your Annika is still in here… with me."

"You're insane." Janeway also knew Regina was right. Her hands were shaking, only a little, but noticeably nonetheless. She cursed aloud at Regina, but more at her own unsteadiness.

"True. But I'm also right." Certain Janeway wouldn't fire at her or damage her even if she did Regina moved closer to the armed woman with a smug smirk on her lips. "Go ahead. Fire. I dare you."

Janeway's moment of hesitation was through and she fired the compression phaser rifle. The ruby red streak of energy destroyed the surrounding technology until Regina knocked the weapon from Janeway's hands that also sent her crashing to the deck. Janeway remained on the metal grated floor as the damaged sphere quaked powerfully around her.

"I won't be stopped! Not this time." Regina stooped down to pick Janeway off from the floor despite vehement protest against such an act.

She cried out when Regina pressed her palm to the device upon Janeway's chest that caused a surge of pain through her already weakened body. She fell limp in Regina's metal arms and tried desperately to cling to her consciousness as she was being carried through the interior of the sphere shaped ship steadily even as it shook around them.

"Kill whoever comes onboard." Regina needed only to relay the message to one of her drones to ensure that all of the mechanical minions onboard her vessel would carry out her orders. The technological beings that appeared to be masked and hooded men armed with phaser rifles began to disperse throughout the ship.

"Regina." Janeway's ability to keep her eyes open and her voice above a rasp was only due to her indomitable will. Her consciousness was fading away fast; she knew it and feared what that could mean for her country and her mission. "Don't. Please."

"The country is burning." Regina's voice was soft as if she was soothing a scared child as she brushed a metal encased hand across Janeway's damp forehead. "And in the ashes will rise a new world order. Controlled by those rightfully chosen by evolution. I shall be their Queen. Those who oppose me with be dealt with swiftly with death."

"Then… you should kill me now." Janeway moved her face away from the cold metal palm. Her voice was determined but rasping. "I will… do everything in my power to stop you."

Regina ignored the pain in her chest caused by Janeway's words. She brushed them away as irrelevant. She was determined to believe that Janeway had no power over her. And that in time Janeway would adjust to the new situation of metahuman superiority. That she would adapt.

"I won't kill you, Kathryn." Regina gently deposited Janeway into the co-pilot seat of a two-person shuttle before she placed a hand against the other woman's lower abdomen. "You will be the mother of our child, who will be more powerful than any who came before and will usher in the new era of metahumans."

"No." Janeway's repulsed reply was mild next to the disgust she felt chilling her to the bone. "You can't be serious."

"Oh yes. You see you were always meant to be mine." The metal encasing the face before Janeway pulled away in shards to reveal Annika's smirking visage that seemed wrong and grotesque to Janeway. Even more so when full lips pressed roughly against her own unresponsive mouth. "Not that I need your permission, but it would be better for you if you did not resist. You will realize in time that I'm the one with the power. Not you. Not ever again."

Janeway recoiled from the wild look that Regina forced to be on Annika's features. It was a mixture of lascivious want and crazed glee. "I'm not your mother, Regina."

Regina's head snapped back as if she had just been slapped in the face and was more than ready to return the favor. She didn't though. She merely brought the liquid like metal over her features once again and restrained Janeway with the chair harness and belt before she moved to the pilot's chair. The small shuttlecraft hummed to life as Regina initiated flight procedures and it was then Janeway knew it was now or never. The UFM troops were obviously closing in on them for Regina was more agitated than she had ever seen her. As covertly as she could Janeway eyed the large silver spikes that sprouted from Regina's forearms.

Regina pushed the shuttle as fast as she dared through the metal gridiron of her vessel because she was well aware that the UFM was not going to allow her to live even if it took one of their greatest leaders with her. "Sphere zero-zero-one, initiate self-destruct sequence, set for thirty minutes, enable."

The computer's response sounded like a chorus of a million voices. "Self-destruct sequence enabled."

"What the hell are you doing?" Regina's scream of outrage as she tore her right arm from Janeway's grasp was nothing compared to the ear splitting bellow that had emitted from the deepest depths of Janeway. "What have you done?"

Janeway might have been able to answer her if blood wasn't sputtering from her mouth as she convulsed in her chair. Later, perhaps if she were still alive, Janeway would have reconsidered her impulsive decision. Now she had to live with it. Or try to. The metal spike hadn't just destroyed the power inhibitor attached to her chest it had also pierced her vulnerable flesh. The metal sporadically blocked the blood that ooze darkly from the wound and glass imbedded within her body.

"I… have the power." Janeway smiled a bloody grin as the ambient energy of the shuttle and the larger spherical ship imbued her with golden light. She threw up a forceful blast of energy that expelled Regina through the windscreen of the shuttle. She extracted the remaining energy from the shuttlecraft that soon shut it down completely.

Janeway bit off a cry of agony as she pressed her hand to her bloody chest and exited the small vessel by flying through the opening Regina had made. The glow soon dissipated around her, which made her drop to the deck harder and faster than she would have wanted. Puddles of blood followed her as she dragged herself towards Regina's fallen metal form. A part of Janeway actually hoped Regina was dead. On the other hand the thought that Annika would have died as well was more painful than her chest wound and the broken bone in her right leg. Janeway kept moving, now with urgent speed.

Regina leapt to her feet faster than Janeway had expected and it made her land hard upon the deck with a groan of pain. "YOU! You've ruined everything!"

"I know." Janeway would have laughed if not for the pain.

"I will kill you!" It took all of Regina's will power not to let a metal fist end Kathryn Janeway's life. Instead she lifted Janeway from the floor and carried her as she sprinted towards the nearest escape hatch.

"No. You won't. You want me to have your baby." Janeway wondered with the part of her mind not focused on the immense pain she was feeling if she was slowly becoming insane from the aforementioned pain. "You really are crazy. Maybe part… of why I loved you so much."

Regina nearly dropped the woman in her arms both from what had just been spoken and because the ship shook around her due to heavy weapons fire. The surrounding hum of energy that glowed green in the metal gridiron of Regina's ship created a faint light that enveloped Janeway. It was enough for her to blast a forceful stream of energy from her palm into Regina's face, which didn't damage her extensively but did make her drop Janeway. She never hit the floor though. Janeway had just enough energy to fly high above Regina.

"Shut down the self-destruct, Regina. Or we'll die here together." Janeway had one glowing hand aimed at Regina and the other one clutched to her bloody chest in a vain attempt to staunch the bleeding. It also took all of her will to use the energy to keep her conscious and afloat. "Do it!"

"You won't allow it. The sphere's destruction won't just kill you and me. The explosion will take out half of Washington D.C." Regina smiled at the horrified look upon Janeway's features. "I'll disable the self-destruct sequence, but first you have to swear yourself to me. That you will be mine."

"You're not serious." Even as Janeway said it she knew it Regina was nothing if not always serious. "This was your plan all along. My God, Regina, do you actually want to be responsible for so much death. So much pain."

Regina's lips pulled up into a smirk. "I do. From the ashes—"

"These are people! Stop this. I know you can." Janeway dropped to floor though still out of reach of Regina for the time being. "Shut it down and I swear I won't resist any longer. I'll do whatever you ask of me. Willingly. Just… please, don't do this."

"How noble." Regina swaggered towards Janeway who stood very still with a defiant expression despite her offer. "How expected. The great Kathryn Janeway offering herself to me to save humans who would like to see her and her people dead or worse. You would sacrifice your life, your body for these 'people'? Completely."

"Yes." Janeway tried not to recoil from Regina's touch and tried to imagine it was in fact Annika holding her close. She shut her eyes and forcefully relaxed her body as Regina forced her mouth open with her tongue and bruised her lips with rough kisses.

Regina licked Janeway's blood from her lips before she spoke to her ship. "Sphere zero-zero-one, disable self-destruct sequence."

"Unable to comply due to damage to secondary command processors."

The awful look of realization and dread on Janeway's face was matched by Regina.

"Wait!" Regina rushed after Janeway, but she was soon outmatched by the flight speed the other woman employed. She could no longer see Janeway. Only the trail of energy left in her wake.

A somber Janeway stood before the overheating engine with her determined features lit green by the glowing core. Despite her loss of blood, the metal and glass imbedded in her chest, the broken tibia in her right leg, and her own lack of substantial power Janeway was unwavering in her resolve to prevent the core breach or die trying.

Janeway pressed her hands against the transparent aluminum that contained the awesome energy of the engine core and concentrated on gradually draining it of its power. With a cry of pain she fell to her hands and knees when the feedback surge disrupted her absorption. Sweat and blood dripped from her body on to the dark metal grating of the deck as she took the time to take in deep calming breaths despite the countdown to imminent death of more than three hundred thousand people and destruction of the country's capital.

"Did you honestly believe my engines wouldn't be safeguarded against you?" Regina stooped down to pick Janeway up from the deck plating, but was met with a repulsive force field. She tried again, but with more force this time. Metal fists collided into the glowing dome of protection that was quickly losing structural integrity. The strain was evident on Janeway's features even as she projected her force field out to propel Regina away from her.

Regina quickly and easily recovered from being knocked into the nearest bulkhead. She increased the thickness and durability of the layers of protective metal surrounding her as she approached Janeway once again. Instead of trying to break down the force field she merely pressed her hands against it.

"Kathryn, I will survive this explosion." Regina concentrated on extending her metal covering to go beyond her body. Janeway looked with confusion at the tendrils of liquid metal emitting from Regina's hands. "Annika had no idea what she was capable of. I do. You will survive as well… just drop the force field. You can't help these people. Let me protect you. Save you."

Janeway ignored the fact that her force field was already failing and that she was nearing a fatal loss of blood and instead focused her efforts on opening herself fully to the massive amount of energy that would be erupting in the matter of a few minutes.

"Come on. Come on." Janeway's voice trembled as much as her arms as she pressed her hands to the base of the engine core unable to get to her feet. Her field extended outward in small incriminates despite loud protests from Regina and the fact that her body was overtaxed already.

"LET ME IN!" Regina's fist banged into the glowing barrier, but to no effect. She felt her frustration and fear making her sick. Her voice became quiet and desperate. "Kathryn, please, you'll die."

"Ten seconds to self-destruct sequence."

Janeway couldn't raise her head, but she smiled despite how shaky her voice was. "It's all right, Regina."

Regina's hands slammed hard against the force field more out of desperation than anger. "NO!"

The explosion was oddly quiet as if all the sound was being sucked into a vacuum. The resulting massive green flare of light and energy seemed to be suspended in time after it erupted from the destabilized engine core. Waves of green tinted energy washed over Janeway which resulted in the instant evaporation of her already ruined business suit revealing a thin, but durable black vest and a pair of skin tight shorts, but even those were being assaulted by the immense amount of power infusing her body.

Janeway screamed as the unrelenting energy assaulted her. She tried to push past the pain, the agony, but she felt it through every millimeter of her body. She was being torn apart and still she kept herself open to the power, to be a vessel for it, even as she began to slip away into darkness. Something deep within her, hidden away from others and usually herself, laid in waiting coaxing her to let go, to allow it reign over her mind and body. She continued to absorb the engine core's power as she finally relented to the temptation, an almost automatic defense mechanism against the overwhelming pain and unrelenting energy flooding her body.

"Magnificent." Regina was transfixed as she watched with awe and pleasure as Janeway's body turned nearly white with power, like a tiny sun.

Tendrils of energy surged around Janeway's crouched form as the last of the engine's power was pulled into her body. Regina couldn't bring herself to look away from Janeway who glowed brightly from an internal surplus of power that could not be fully contained within such a small feminine vessel. She thought Janeway looked like a warrior goddess framed in fire and bathed in beauty.

The sphere shuddered violently around Regina as the emergency power righted the ship with anti-gravity thrusters and kept it afloat. Once her equilibrium was restored Regina moved closer to where Janeway was still crouched on the floor with her hands pressed tightly against the now demolished engine core. Her long thick auburn hair flowed behind her with streams of white-hot energy coursing through each strand.

"Kathryn?" Regina felt uneasy when Janeway didn't acknowledge her and continued to ignore her even as she drew close enough to feel the heat emanating from the other woman. "Kathryn?"

A sound of surprise burst forth from Regina when she landed hard on the deck with Janeway's slight, but powerful body on top of her. Her exclamation of surprise was replaced by a deep throated groan when unexpectedly, but pleasantly, the woman on top of her pressed their bodies together while Janeway's mouth ravished hers.

"S—stop! Stop!" Regina pushed Janeway forcefully off her when her touch began to burn her literally. The damage to the thick metal casing held the evidence of the massive amount of energy Janeway had at her disposal. "What's wrong with you?"

"I want more." Janeway smiled hungrily at Regina as she approached the bemused woman. "I need more."

CHAPTER 74

"This place is creepy." Tom's light blue eyes moved from one dimly lit crevice of the interior of the spherical ship to another. He maintained a mild amount of thermo-chemical energy around him so he was prepared for anything. "Am I the only one creeped out by this place?"

"Shut up, Paris." B'Elanna's keen eyes roamed over places Tom's sight wouldn't allow him to see. She saw nothing untoward and that made her skin crawl. "And keep your blaze down you're lit up like a damned nightlight."

Chakotay and Neelix were growling quietly in their respective animalistic forms as they took up the rear of the eight-person away team. Kes couldn't help but place a soothing hand on Neelix's orange and black furred back in attempt to ease the tension she sensed from him. She felt it from the others as well. It was beginning to overpower her so she forced herself to close her mind to the distracting emotions.

"This is a rather unpleasant place." Doctor Zimmerman's sardonic voice barely hid the fact that he was disturbed by the eerily quiet and vast ship they had found themselves in. It hadn't helped that they had come across dozens of inert mechanical beings that on first glance appeared to be corpses.

Harry's eyes were glued to his glowing tricorder in an attempt to be ready for anything. "The energy surges are coming from beyond that—Get down!"

The wall before them exploded outwardly by a blast that shook the deck plating around them, singed the air and added a smell of burning ozone. Not soon after a silver form was expelled through the opening before colliding heavily into a bulkhead.

"Annika?" B'Elanna rushed with legs faster than those around her to the fallen metal encased woman uncaring of any danger that could befall her in doing so. "Are you all right? What the hell's going on?"

"Kathryn." Regina groaned as she lay immobilized upon the deck while silver liquid-like metal flowed erratically across her pale skin and retracted into her body before it was secreted again.

"My God." B'Elanna didn't know what exactly was happening, but she could tell enough that Annika didn't look good and that worried her. "Where's Janeway?"

"It's all wrong." Regina gripped B'Elanna's biceps as she lifted her upper body from the deck. Her icy blue eyes shifted from B'Elanna's worried features to the fiery creature that appeared in the breach made in the thick metal wall.

B'Elanna quickly turned her head to look over her shoulder at what had caught Annika's attention. In a shocked daze she stood and absently helped Annika to her feet, as unsteady as they were, as well. Kathryn Janeway stood silently with a blaze of fiery white and orange energy emanating from her petite form in waves of scorching heat and light. Her flesh looked akin to the surface of the sun with flares of white-hot energy rippling in torrents across her body.

"Captain?" B'Elanna felt an inexplicable feeling of dread fill her. The stony silence, still features, and immense dispersion of energy made for an intimidating sight. She felt slightly relieved, but embarrassed because of it, when she was soon flanked by the rest of the away team.

"Annika, what's happening?" Tom pushed forward and though he wanted an answer from the woman held in B'Elanna's arms his eyes never moved from Janeway's blazing form. "Captain? Are you okay?"

"Tom, wait. We don't know what's going on."

Kes' words of warning were ignored as Tom continued to move closer to Janeway until he was standing on the other side of the rift in the metal wall that she had made.

"Tom, I'm glad you're here. I need you. Please." Janeway's voice was soft, husky, alluring. She held her hand out to be taken in Tom's, which he did, urgently. She smiled a lop-sided grin when his thermo-chemical discharges mingled with her own energy field.

Tom dropped to his knees as he felt his internal power reserves being ripped from his body. He tried to extract his hands from Janeway's grasp to keep his energy to himself, but he knew he was failing at both especially when he was beginning to lose consciousness.

Janeway cried out in both surprise and anger when Tom and his coveted energy was ripped away from her after Kes delivered a powerful telekinetic blow that sent her flying back into Regina's inner sanctum.

"Tom, are you all right?" Kes crouched down to the fallen man who surprised her with his cocky smirk.

"Hell of a thing." Tom groaned as Kes and Doctor Zimmerman helped him to his feet. In truth what Janeway had just done scared the hell out of him. He felt his energy core reestablishing itself, which allowed a wave of relief to wash over him. "What the hell's wrong with her, Annika?"

"I don't know." Regina, ensconced in the physical form of Annika, wasn't as intuitive as she had been previously. She had to be honest with herself she really didn't know what was wrong with Kathryn. And that unsettled her. "I need to get into the engine room. Now."

"That might be a problem." B'Elanna absently held onto Annika as a golden blaze flared forth almost touching the nine people standing determinedly, but also anxiously in a bent line. "Tom!"

Tom broke rank to stand before the barrage of superheated plasma that emanated from their leader, their mentor, and for some and especially Tom Paris, their savior. He held his hands up and concentrated on not propulsion but protection. He struggled and groaned against the strain of maintaining his blast-field, but nothing short of death would keep him from trying to defend his teammates and friends despite who the person was on the other side of the shield.

He had no idea what had happened to Janeway to make her lash out at her own team or to try to drain him of his power but he wasn't going to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she was under some sort of control he knew she wouldn't want him to. It was hard though, he wanted so much to reach out and help her. She didn't seem as inclined to do the same as she intensified her attack on his protective barrier.

Tom knew he was losing ground when his energy field began to fade in its intensity and shrank in size. He used the rest of his power reserves to shape the field around the fiery form of Kathryn Janeway instead to try to imprison her for as long as his energy supply remained.

Kes stood next to Tom and extended her aid by reinforcing the field he had erected around Janeway. She felt Tom's anxiety that his blast-field wouldn't hold and she knew he had every right to be worried. Their combined forces were nothing compared to the awesome power at Janeway's disposal. Kes maintained her force field even when the orange and red blast-field Tom had formed destabilized completely as the man fell into unconsciousness.

"Harry, get everyone out! Go, Harry, now!" Kes heard the protests but knew they were for naught. The rest of the team knew they didn't stand a chance against Janeway alone. They needed to regroup and get help. She was relieved when Harry formed a purple glowing doorway and reluctantly led the way out.

With the others gone Kes concentrated solely on maintaining her force field. She strained against the mental pressure such a task required of her, but knew it was up to her to at least attempt to get through to Janeway.

"Why are you doing this? The Kathryn Janeway I know wouldn't hurt anyone without good cause, especially her team." There was confusion on Kes' voice because she sensed no other presence, no mind control, or any other explanation for Janeway's behavior. "What is it that you want?"

"Power." Janeway's lips curled up into a hungry grin as her glowing eyes raked over Kes' small form. "Your power. And I'll have it soon."

"No!" Tears sprang to Kes' eyes as she remembered the promise Kathryn Janeway had made to her and the promise she had made in return her first day at the Voyager Institute.

"Kes, if that day were to come; where there would be no other option but to kill you to save you from yourself and to protect others… Yes, I would kill you, without hesitation." Janeway took the small woman's shoulders in her hands and bent forward to look into the violet eyes that were beginning to brim with determined tears.

"And if that day were to ever come for me… I'd expect nothing less from you either."

"I promise. Thank you. Thank you so much." Kes had flung herself at the older woman and cried, grateful beyond words that if she were to become a monster her fate would be swift. "Thank you."

"Kes. You don't honestly believe you'll win this." Janeway's voice was cold and crueler than Kes had ever heard. "Resistance is futile."

"I made a promise to a woman who is the strongest most honorable person I know. And I intend to keep it." Kes' violet eyes glowed brightly as she pushed into Janeway's mind. "You have no idea what I am capable of."

"Let's see shall we?" Janeway smiled toothily as she began to forcefully absorb the psychic energy from Kes' force field into her body. "You're power is becoming mine. It feels good. But I want more. Let's break down some of those walls, hmm."

Janeway's stolen psionic energy pushed into Kes' mind and began to attack the mental barriers Picard had erected in Kes' mind nearly four years ago. When they finally gave way the mental powers that had been blocked for so long reemerged with a vengeance.

The metal grates and bulkheads surrounding Janeway and Kes began to melt away as psychically produced fire engulfed Janeway completely. The blue flames flowed over Janeway in unrelenting waves and still the woman maintained her solid standing. She closed her eyes, opened her arms receptively and allowed the pain and the pleasure from absorbing energy she soon made her own.

Kes tried to reverse what Janeway had done, but it was to no avail. She was released and it was overpowering. The energy wasn't just flowing out of her it was being wrenched from her body by Janeway. She threw up a force field around herself to try to stem the transfer.

"Don't resist." Janeway's outstretched arms caused the fiery flames that surrounded her to take on blazing wing-like forms as they curled to surround Kes. "Just let it happen."

"No!" Kes tried to strengthen her protective bubble and to push it outward, but she knew it was futile. If she pushed too much she would lose all control over her newly released and immense power. Janeway would draw every last bit of her energy and all would be lost. She needed to end this and end it now.

The glowing violet knife-like projectile composed completely of raw and powerful psionic energy struck Janeway squarely in the chest.

"I'm sorry, Kathryn."

CHAPTER 75

Tom opened his eyes slowly and smiled when he saw B'Elanna's worried face looking down on him. His voice was low and raspy. "Hey."

"Hey." B'Elanna smiled softly in return. She quickly felt uncomfortable with the display of intimacy with the others in the sickbay so close. She stood from the chair she had been occupying waiting for Tom to regain consciousness and moved away from the bed.

"What's going on? The captain? Is she…?" Tom couldn't finish the rest of his question when B'Elanna turned away from him with tears in her eyes. "No. I don't believe it."

Tom tried to bolt from the bed, but was restrained by B'Elanna's hand on his chest.

"She's not dead." B'Elanna motioned towards the cordoned off portion of the Enterprise's sickbay. "But she's not good."

Tom grasped B'Elanna's wrist and gently removed her hand from his chest so he could stand. B'Elanna assisted in getting him to his feet and gaining his equilibrium.

"Thanks." Tom smiled before he moved out of B'Elanna's hold to go to Janeway. He missed the conflicted look that passed across B'Elanna's features.

"No problem." B'Elanna concealed her relief that Tom seemed fully recovered as she followed him to the other side of the sterilely lit sickbay to where the rest of the Voyager team and some of the Enterprise's personnel were keeping watch over Janeway.

"What's wrong with her?" Tom's eyes were fixed upon Janeway's motionless form.

Kathryn Janeway was in a seemingly comatose state with small circular monitors placed on her naked upper chest. Even through the light gray sheet that covered her petite form he could see her body glowing ever so faintly. Her long chestnut colored hair settled in thick waves across the stark white pillows and her elegant features seemed troubled. Tom was reminded of the old fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" his sisters had used to love so much.

Doctor Zimmerman sighed in frustration next to Tom as he looked up from his PADD to Janeway's prone form. "We don't know."

Tom looked sharply at the doctor. A sympathetic, but tired visage faced him, which caused a coldness to rush through his body. Tom nodded absently as he turned his eyes back to Janeway. He knew if the doctor didn't know what was wrong with someone it was pretty serious and he had a right to worry. He had already known something was wrong. The way Janeway had tried to forcefully extract his energy was nothing like the woman he had grown to admire so much.

"I've healed her external injuries." Zimmerman's eyes covertly moved to Kes who had a hand on the transparent aluminum partition that separated Janeway from the rest of the world. "We've called Professor Picard to assist us in the possible mental injuries she could have suffered. He should be here within the hour with the rest of the Mentals. Until then we just have to wait."

Zimmerman had asked Kes to assist Picard, but she had vehemently refused saying she had done enough damage already. The doctor wished he had some words of comfort he could extend to Kes, but he didn't. What she had done was necessary. Janeway had obviously not been herself and her powers were too extreme and dangerous to be allowed free reign. Kes had performed her duties as an UFM member and as a protégé of Kathryn Janeway, but that didn't help in relieving the guilt she was now shouldered with. Only perhaps the headmistress awake and intact could do that.

"We have another problem." Chakotay looked harried, but in control of his emotions as per the usual as he turned his narrowed dark eyes from Janeway to Tom. "Annika is not who we thought she was."

"Who the hell is she then?" Tom felt instantly aggressive. If Annika had done anything to purposefully hurt Janeway he knew no one would be able to stop him from hurting her back, with interest.

"Regina McQueen."

"But…" Tom looked from Chakotay to B'Elanna who merely shrugged noncommittally. "She's dead."

"Not so much." Harry looked freshly scrubbed and as wide-eyed as he usually did. It reassured Tom in some odd way. Perhaps because Harry always seemed to be a barometer for how badly things were going. The inevitable whipping boy in any dangerous situation they found themselves in. "It's weird."

"You don't say." Tom smirked, his voice sardonic. "So let's see if I'm all caught up. The captain is in some kind of energy overload induced coma. Annika's not really Annika but Regina McQueen who, by the way, is supposed to be pretty damned dead. And no one really knows anything about anything and no one has a clue as to what the hell we do next."

"Yeah, that's about right." Harry had a repentant look to his boyish features. "Not exactly the place we want to be, I know."

Tom sighed as he wholeheartedly agreed. He turned back to where Janeway laid surrounded by monitoring equipment and an invisible dampening field that kept her energy emissions to a minimum. "Where's Ann—Regina now?"

"The brig." It was clear from Chakotay's tone that was where she would be staying for the foreseeable future if he had a say in the matter.

"Well, why doesn't Tuvok do his melding thing or Kes get into her mind or something?" Tom looked at the two mentals who he thought should have already attempted both.

"Regina isn't exactly in Annika's mind." The doctor motioned for Tom to look at the medical monitor. Tom complied and what he saw, which were millions of gray squares of technology attaching to red blood cells, he didn't entirely understand. He still didn't even after the first two times Zimmerman explained that Regina had introduced an army of microscopic robotic devices into Annika's body which eventually took over her functions.

Exasperated the doctor thought perhaps hand puppets might be in order soon. "Suffice to say Regina's in control of Annika's body and we can't find a way to exorcise her, yet."

"Huh." Tom leaned closer to monitor to observe the tiny machines that were allowing Regina's control. "What's the status on the ground?"

"UN forces arrived about forty-five minutes ago to relieve the UFM of their prisoners. It's pretty chaotic, but the President is back in the area and her teams are working on reestablishing law and order." Harry smiled faintly even as his dark worried eyes were riveted to Janeway. "With the UFM team's help. This might be the first major step towards the US signing the treaty."

"Great. All it took was a coup d'état and the complete destruction of our country's capital." Tom didn't add that it could have cost them their leader as well. The thought was too painful to contemplate. He had to look away from Janeway as he addressed Chakotay. "I need to be doing something."

Chakotay understood Tom's need as matching his own, but the reality was that there wasn't much they could do. None of them had the capabilities to assist Janeway. Chakotay had never cared for Tom, never liked the close relationship Kathryn had with the roughish man. But he saw nothing of the usual cockiness and irritating egotism he associated with Tom Paris. Instead he saw genuine pain and fear in Tom's light blue eyes.

"Go to the ground. Bashir's the point man." Chakotay looked past Tom to Harry and B'Elanna. "You two go too. There's nothing we can do up here. The captain would want us to be helping out as much as we can, not standing idly next to her bedside. Tuvok, tell us the instant if there's any change."

"Of course."

"You go too." Kes didn't look away from where Janeway laid prone upon the biobed as she addressed the man standing watch over her.

"Are you sure?" Neelix didn't like the idea of leaving Kes. She seemed guilt stricken and so very vulnerable and he wanted to make it better. With a heavy heart he realized he wasn't and perhaps couldn't. "Call me. If you need anything."

Kes nodded absently, which stabbed Neelix's heart as he walked away knowing Kes and he would never be.

The doors made a hissing noise as they closed behind Chakotay, Tom, B'Elanna, Harry, and Neelix. Kes sighed as she stood from her chair and pressed her hand tighter to the clear partition. Tears that glowed violet fell from Kes' eyes as she whispered to a woman who could not hear her. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Kes? Where are you going?"

She ignored Zimmerman's worried words as she rushed out of the sickbay. She silently thanked Tuvok for understanding her intentions and restraining the doctor from following her. Kes brushed the moisture from her face, her eyes glowing brightly as she moved down the corridors of the UFM ship. She blocked out all the thoughts that sounded in her mind as she concentrated on just one. Regina.

The hulking man who possessed twice the strength of even the mighty B'Elanna Torres fell heavily to the deck shortly after Kes had entered the brig. Brute force was nothing compared to a psionic blast. Kes stepped over Worf's unconscious form as she moved in front of the energy barrier that kept Regina from the rest of the world.

The field that not only prevented Regina's escape but also her use of the powers that the body she inhabited possessed dropped before her. She instantly called up the metal exoskeleton that formed fluidly around her.

"You are to be my executioner?" Regina smirked mockingly, obviously unimpressed despite the efficient way in which Kes had dispatched Worf.

"No." Kes' eyes could not contain the psionic energy she harnessed; violet energy crackled forth not just from her gaze but from her hands as well. "Merely the exorcist."

"I am not simply possessing her body." Regina dropped her sardonic tone. She became almost reverent in speaking of the woman whose body she had completely taken control of. "I have assimilated her. Become one with her. Every cell in her body is mine."

"You will release her." Kes whole body began to emanate a violet glow that was becoming more volatile as her ire grew. "Or I will rip you apart."

"If you kill me you'll be killing Annika. She and I are one. Will you be the one to kill the woman Kathryn Janeway loves?" If Regina's entreating voice was meant to distract Kes it didn't succeed. The silver metal spike she had launched from her arm at Kes was easily repulsed by a psionically created force field that glowed purple before it dissipated.

"My turn." Kes mentally held Regina's body in place as she drove a psionic stake through the other woman's metal chest. The raw psychic energy instantly short-circuited Regina's nervous system and dropped the woman to the deck.

Kes crossed her legs as she seated herself next to Regina. Her eyes closed as she placed her hands on either side of the unconscious woman's metal encased head. Kes forcefully ignored the humming of thoughts permeating her environment and concentrated solely on the woman lying before her. The tips of her fingers glowed a dark purple as she plunged psionically manifested spike-like nails into Regina's head. Kes inhaled deeply before she thrust herself fully into Regina's psyche.

CHAPTER 76

When Kes opened her eyes she found herself in a beige living room with the light of the television set cast shadows upon the couch and its occupants. A small strawberry blonde hair girl was curled up next to her gray-haired father. Both watched in rapt attention as a space battled ensued before them.

"I want to be a starship captain someday." The ten-year-old Regina McQueen smiled up at her adored father with certainty in her voice.

"You can be whatever you want to be, Reggie-bear." A gentle, but roughly callused hand stroked the top of his daughter's head as he smiled indulgently.

Three years later that same hand was causing purple bruises and bloody cuts to erupt across Regina's body. The fact that their daughter was a dirty, sinful mutant caused a hatred and disgust within Donald and Beth McQueen that even they would never have thought possible. Donald eventually grew tired and turned to the half drank bottle of whiskey, which allowed his wife to take over the daily punishment their daughter had been receiving for the past two months, ever since her powers had manifested.

Kes felt sick to her stomach as she felt for Regina and for her own experience with cruelty and abuse though hers was dealt out by strangers not her family. She watched as Donald slumped on the couch near unconsciousness with the almost empty bottle held loosely in one hand. It struck Kes like a punch to the stomach that Regina's mother, excluding the rather menacing and horrible look she projected while holding a small black handled knife in one hand, possessed features not entirely unlike Kathryn Janeway's. She pushed aside this memory before she had to witness the knife touching Regina's vulnerable flesh.

The next memory made Kes feel oddly vindicated though guilty because of it. Six months after the last memory she stood invisible next to Regina, who was stoically silent, as her parents were being wheeled out onto gurneys from the smoldering remains of their two-story home.

"I'm with Child Protection Services. Who's in charge here?"

Kes felt oddly amused as she watched Lwaxana Troi and Lyndsay Ballard convincing the local police to hand over custody of Regina McQueen to them. Lwaxana explained that Regina had been at school when the fire had broken out so she had witnessed nothing. The woman went on to state that it was plausible that the pilot light to the oven had gone out, which let out a little bit of gas that could have filled the house for days and that the refrigerator's compressor could have clicked on resulting in the devastating and deadly fire. Lwaxana was very persuasive and so within a few minutes she had Regina in her guardianship.

"It was an accident." Regina nearly smiled at her falsehood.

"No. I'm sure it wasn't."

Kes pushed forward again. She found herself in the office now occupied by Janeway, but presently used by Lwaxana. She was speaking in proud tones to Regina. "You're making excellent progress. As your counselor I recommended that you be allowed out of your confinement and be integrated into the rest of the school population fully."

"Thank you." Regina's smile seemed forced, but it was only due to lack of practice. Being confined to the campus for two years with only Lwaxana and the other Voyager students and staff as company hadn't elicited much more than indifference. "I want to be a good student. To learn how to use my powers responsibly so that someday I can help others."

"It'll take time, Regina, hard work and determination. But I'm certain you'll do great things." Any other words of encouragement were cut off when her door chime rang. "Come in."

"Lwaxana, we have to go." Lyndsay Ballard smiled tentatively at Regina. Truth be told the teenager freaked her out. She focused her eyes instead on Lwaxana, her voice urgent. "A little girl in Connecticut survived a plane crash without a scratch on her. Her aunt just called and requested our assistance."

"I'll meet you in the hanger in fifteen minutes." Lwaxana watched the door slide close behind Lyndsay before she rose from her desk. "You've come a long way in the last two years, Regina. I have ever confidence in you. Now, I must be going. Doctor Pulaski is expecting you in sickbay for your physical"

Kes wasn't receiving anything helpful in these old memories so she pushed forward seven years to a particularly volatile remembrance. She actually felt herself blush as she took in the passionate scene before her.

"Regina, please stop. Stop!" An eighteen-year-old Kathryn Janeway removed Regina's hand from her bare thigh as she pulled the hem of her skirt down to regain some semblance of modesty. "I don't think we should."

"I want you." Regina grasped Kathryn's wrists and brought the elegant hands to her mouth to deposit moist kisses along pale knuckles and palms. "Don't you want me?"

"I-I don't know. This is all really fast." Kathryn tried to disengage her wrists from Regina's wrists but it was to no avail. "Please, let me go."

"I've wanted you for so long, Kat. It hurts me sometimes." Regina didn't let go as instructed; instead she brought Janeway's hands down to her upper chest. "Do you feel how much I love you?"

"I love you too. You know that. I just—" Kathryn blushed hotly as she cast her eyes down to her dark blue comforter instead of the eyes that seem to bore into her. "I don't know if this is right. I'm scared—."

"Don't be. It's just me. You know me." Regina smiled triumphantly as she managed to slowly lower Janeway to the soft mattress. "Just let me have you."

Regina used one hand to clasp Kathryn's wrists and to hold her arms to the bed as she brushed her other hand slowly across smooth skin as she pushed the fabric of the other woman's skirt up inch by inch to reveal more pale beautiful flesh, while she deposited warm kisses along Kathryn's neck.

"Stop. Regina, please stop." Kathryn tried to break Regina's hold on her wrists and to push the woman off of her but couldn't manage to do either. "I said STOP!"

The energy blast wasn't terribly strong, but it accomplished what Kathryn had wanted. Regina was now on the floor near the door and Kathryn was removing herself from the bed and straightening her dress with shaky hands.

"You're a goddamned tease, you know that?" Regina got to her feet quickly her anger at being rebuffed obvious from her flushed features. "Who else besides me and that idiot Hobbes do you put on, huh? Probably all the other students too like that perv Riker. Maybe some of the teachers too. Probably why you're always staying after class."

Hot tears pricked at Kathryn's eyes but she would not allow them to fall. "Regina, I'm sorry I can't… give you what you want. But I don't deserve such ugly words and accusations. Hobbes doesn't deserve it either. Neither do any of the others. I know you're mad and you'll regret your words later, so right now I'm just going to let you cool off and go to my room."

Kathryn's heart seemed to skip a beat when Regina grabbed her arms and pushed her against the wall with enough force that some of the air was knocked out of her. Regina's lips were close to Kathryn's ear and her warm breath wafted across sensitive skin.

"You're mine, Kathryn. I'm supposed to have you."

"And that's why you never will." Kathryn's voice was cold and unforgiving. "Now let me go or I'll make you."

Reluctantly Regina let her hands drop to her side and watched Kathryn walk to the door before the woman she wanted more than anything in the world turned cold dark gray eyes towards her. "I do love you, Regina. You're my best friend. I'm just scared you don't realize that loving someone doesn't mean you possess them. I—I'll see you tomorrow. Okay?"

"Kathryn, I'm sorry." Regina's quick temper had gotten her into plenty of trouble over the years, but never had she truly felt guilty about lashing out at someone before this moment. "Please. Don't go. I didn't mean what I said. Just stay. I won't try anything I promise."

"Tomorrow."

Regina stood rooted to the spot even minutes after her dorm room door had closed behind Janeway. Once she realized the other woman was not coming back she bellowed a curse loudly and threw the closet thing she could put her hands on against the wall above her bed. The rumpled sheets were strewn with glass shards.

Uncaring of the small pieces of glass embedded in the fabric of her pants, Regina sat on the bed and retrieved the picture that had so recently been safely housed inside a glass frame. It was a picture of just her and Kathryn in their black matching combat outfits and both had warm, but subdued smiles on their lips. Regina brushed a finger over Kathryn's smiling visage.

"You will be mine, Kathryn. I was meant to have you."

Kes moved past the memory when Regina began to cut herself with a shard of glass and drops of blood fell upon the photograph on her lap. The next memory rushed into her without warning and Kes was nearly propelled out of Regina's mind by the extreme pain present. Nothing was clear in this memory except for vague visions of green liquid and Crell Moset's craggy visage telling Regina the acceleration process was nearly complete.

"She's making excellent progress."

Regina nodded her head in agreement to Kellin's assessment of how well Annika had integrated herself into the Voyager team. Kellin Ramuran's ability to alter, falsify, and erase memories had been crucial in Annika's development.

"Contact Hayes." Regina turned to address Kashyk. "Tell him he may proceed."

Kes knew she was getting closer to the memory she sought out that would hopefully help her in understanding Janeway's condition. She heard Regina whisper "magnificent" a moment after it became clear to perhaps no one else but Kes what had transpired. She needed to speak with Picard, now. Kes fled Regina's mind and was brought back into the gray confines of the Enterprise's brig.

"Who was she before you used Kellin to instill her with your own memories, personality traits… preferences?" Kes stood stoic and unyielding as she watched with dark violet eyes as Regina slowly rose from the deck.

"That's irrelevant." Regina's voice was highly pitched as she struggled to keep the bile from rising in her throat from the mental attack she had just received. "I gave Annika Hansen new life."

"You did more than that. You gave her part of your soul. Those pieces are missing in who you are now." Kes almost pitied the woman before her. "I think you realized that Kellin didn't just copy your memories, she transferred them completely. Why would you allow that?"

"I wanted to be something good." Regina looked away as she whispered her response. "Someone Kathryn could love."

"Well, you succeeded." Kes smiled ruefully as she moved outside of the brig before mentally erecting the force field that confined Regina. "But when Kathryn looks at you now she sees only what is missing. The better you that Annika had been crafted to be. She no longer sees the woman she fell in love with, she sees the monster that stole her body. But I'll give her back Annika, even if I have to rip you apart to do it."

The chirp from her communicator stayed Kes' hand and her mind. The Defiant had just docked with the Enterprise. Picard was now here and he had a lot to answer for and Kes intended to retrieve those answers herself.

"Should you grow weary, you should sleep." Kes' eyes glowed purple as she forced Regina to fall unconscious on to the deck. As she made her way out of the brig she pushed Worf awake, who was none the wiser as he continued his watch over their loan prisoner.

Picard. What have you done?

Merely saved the world, Kes, twice now. Who else is aware of what I've done?

No one. But you must fix it.

She's stronger now, I'm not certain I can. I will need your help.

The bulkheads around Kes bent and twisted as she passed. Her anger at Picard was immense because she knew he was right. She would have to assist him. She would have to willfully violate Janeway's mind as he had done so many years ago.

Tell the others to leave sickbay. I'm coming to assist. They cannot be privy to this.

Understood.

When Kes entered the sickbay she wasn't surprised that Picard had carried out her command quickly and successfully. The man who had been her mentor, her guide and steady rock through the most painful times of her life, now disgusted her.

"Why? Why did you do it?" Kes' usually warm melodic tones were cold and harsh, her eyes flared with psychic energy and anger. "You willfully violated her mind."

"I did it." Picard's voice was even, steady and without remorse. "Because she asked me to."

CHAPTER 77

"Kathryn." Picard stood in greeting smiling gently as he motioned to one of the chairs in front of his desk. "Please, have a seat."

"Thank you." Janeway gracefully lowered herself to the chair cushion as Picard retook his own. She sat very straight, willing herself not to show any sign of hesitation or nervousness. Picard couldn't readily read her thoughts so she had only her own physicality to worry about.

Janeway's eyes, Picard noticed, were a stormy gray and though she did smile in return it couldn't penetrate through the sadness he could easily detect in those gray depths. "I am terribly sorry for your loss, Kathryn. Justin was a great man."

"Yes. He was." Janeway's hands, which were clasped in front of her upon Picard's desk, glowed ever so slightly. Before he could be certain of what he had just seen she brought her hands to the top of her knees away from his gaze. "I appreciate your words. But that's not why I'm here."

"Oh?" Picard poured the woman before him a cup of the dark bitter brew she preferred. His interest was piqued.

Rarely did this woman ever seek out assistance from anyone. In fact he couldn't quite remember the last time he had even spoken with her despite them being in the same country for the last five years. She had disassociated herself from the UFM and instead concentrated on being a scientist, a world-renowned geneticist. Justin, her fiancé, had been her only link to the UFM as far as Picard knew.

Justin Tighe had been in charge of the British branch of the UFM Rangers, a group who carried out more covert and dangerous operations. The Rangers would sometimes contact Picard to lend manpower or technology for his team. He knew Tighe carried out his missions efficiently, but was seen as a weapon by many of the UFM chairs rather than a member. Tighe had always seemed a dark, broody man who had a distinct distrust for all those around him even when allied with them. Picard himself thought he was somewhat of an anti-social and depressing sort of fellow. It had come as a great shock for many people and a source of gossip within the UFM when it had been announced that Tighe was engaged to Kathryn Janeway.

Picard had been one of those surprised, but he tended to stay away from gossip of any sort. Of course he had heard things; tales of Janeway being an even more covert agent than her future husband that not even the higher ups in the UFM knew of her activities. Picard had doubted those rumors until now.

It was a mere two days ago that Picard had heard Justin had been killed in the line of duty by none other than Gul Camet who was perhaps the most dangerous enemy to the UFM because he was so successful in kidnapping, torturing, and killing metahumans. After the Tau Ceti Prime incident that had resulted in Tighe's death and the destruction of a cold-fusion plant off the coast of Antarctica the Rangers had reported little as to what had occurred. It was their prerogative as secret agents not to have to. Picard marveled that no one else had been killed except for Camet, his men and of course Justin Tighe. Picard somehow knew that he had the woman before him to thank for containing the energy blast from the cold-fusion plant that would have surely taken out the highly populated man-made colonies within Antarctica.

"If I may ask, why are you here?"

"I need you to place mental blocks in my mind." Janeway stood and surprised Picard thoroughly by opening her blouse. "This will allow you to do it."

It wasn't the exposed pale, lightly freckled skin and the top of a black lace bra that took Picard aback it was the fact that she had one of Camet's power dampeners embedded in her upper chest. The skin around the thin metal device was dark red with angry looking veins projecting from the point of entry. It looked highly painful.

"My God, Kathryn, why would you subject yourself to that monstrous thing?"

"The pain, the lack of full use of my powers keeps me in check." Janeway seated herself again, calmly, even though her fingers were trembling as she buttoned her blouse. "I'm hungry. All of the time. I can see the heat coming off of your body. Taste the psionic energy housed inside of you. And I want it. I feel that I need it. Camet, his men, they didn't cause the destruction of the cold-fusion plant. I did. I was injured, in pain. They had killed Justin. I could no longer feel his energy. I felt empty. The energy in the plant's core called out to a part of me I didn't have enough strength to fight, so it fed. But it couldn't be satiated. I absorbed all the energy I could. All the energy I could find. I killed all of those men. Their very synapses fed me. I almost killed the Rangers as well, but they had Kira with them. She cancelled out my powers before I could feed off of them as well."

"Why are you telling me this?" Picard had seen plenty in his day, but this was something completely different. He didn't entirely understand what he was hearing. "Are you saying you have some sort of… split personality?"

"No. No, not exactly. It's more that I get addicted to the power, the need for it, to the point where all I can think of is obtaining more. No matter the cost to others."

"I had no idea." Picard wondered, for being one of the world's greatest telepaths, how much he didn't know. "I'm sorry but what you are asking me to do is a very clear violation of your mind. Something I would never do on general principle. Everything you are, every thought no matter how small will be exposed to me. This isn't merely creating barriers to your powers, but an imprisonment of a part of who you are. Kathryn, I want to help you, but I can't manipulate your mind in such an extreme way."

"You must." Janeway's eyes began to glow white hot, no color could be found, though her voice was even as she rose from her chair. "One day I won't be able to control my hunger and the sun itself will nourish me. And when that day comes those who have not already been killed will stand against me and they will fail. The sky will turn black and the Earth will perish."

"You have a pretty high standing for yourself, I must say." Picard ignored the certainty in her words and the chill that had run down his spine at such a bleak prognosis to her condition.

"T'Pol had this vision. She told me to come to you to prevent this future from occurring." Janeway's eyes became stormy gray again as she forced herself to remain calm and seat herself again. "It's not Kes who you should be worrying yourself about. She will not be the destroyer of this world. She will be kind and gentle with your help. I'm the theoretical level ten metahuman T'Pol has been warning us about. She could not see my face until the Tau Ceti incident and now she knows it to be me. And she tells me you will assist in never letting that future come to pass. You must do this now. I cannot tell you how hard it is not to devour you entirely. Your energy is so great. It would nourish me for a long, long time."

Picard watched with horrified fascination as Janeway's elegant features twisted into an expression that one could classify only as lust. He felt his mental energy begin seeping out of him and her smile grew wider the wearier he became.

Picard's mental bolt knocked Janeway out of her chair even as she began to laugh. She rose to her feet gracefully as she wiped the blood away from the corner of her mouth. She grinned hungrily at Picard as she touched her fingers to the device that was glowing red underneath her blouse. It was trying to counteract the energy emanating from Janeway form and failing miserably. She rose in the air with gold and orange flames encircling her and her sedate business suit became tattering under such enormous heat and energy.

He didn't often implement his cyber kinesis, but in this instance he made an exception. He instilled Camet's device with more power and it quickly resulted in a pained scream from Janeway as her flames extinguished and she fell towards the carpeted floor. She didn't land harshly for Picard had her suspended inches from the ground. He moved her to the large couch on the other side of his office and laid her down as gently as he could. She was calm in her unconsciousness and Picard couldn't help but be affected by how fragile she appeared.

"Kathryn, you poor soul." Picard brought a chair from his desk so he could sit behind the unconscious woman whose eyes fluttered when he placed his fingers upon her temples and linked their minds. "Forgive me."

Picard was brought back to the present, within the Enterprise's sickbay, by Kes' hand on his wrist extracting his fingers from her forehead and his memories from her mind.

"She asked me to, but by the time I relented she was unwilling. It was traumatic and painful for her." Picard remembered all too well how Janeway had screamed and fought against his invasion of her mind. As if to make up for it he had done something he wondered if it had been right in retrospect. "She doesn't remember it."

"Riker."

Picard nodded unnecessarily since it hadn't been voiced as a question so much as an accusation. "We all did what we thought was best."

"You let me believe I was—why didn't you tell me?" Kes' years of fear that she would turn into a monster had prevented her from ever getting close or letting her guard down and now she was being informed that she hadn't needed to fear what darkness was within her.

"T'Pol's premonitions are rarely clean cut, Kes. You needed to chart your own course. And you did. And now, even with those barriers I had erected gone you are in complete control of your abilities." Picard wanted to reach out, physically, to the woman who had been like a daughter to him but he didn't need to be a telepath to now that such comfort was not wanted.

"What do we do now?" Kes peered in through the transparent aluminum to the prone woman held within. Kes wondered what was going on beneath the fluttering eyelids. She hoped they were good dreams, but from the consternation on Janeway's features she knew they were not. "Violate her mind. Rip her psyche a part. And then erase what we did?"

"Kes." Picard couldn't apologize with any sort of honesty. He had done what he had to, what Janeway had asked him to do, and he would have done the same thing even knowing all he knew now. He was about to do the same thing. "What would she want us to do?"

Again memories from the first night she was at the Voyager Institute came back to Kes.

"If-if I were to lose control, I want you to… I want you to kill me."

"Kes, I'm confident that one day you'll have full command over your mind's abilities."

"Yes, hopefully that day will come, but if it doesn't and I do become a threat, you must kill me."

"Kes, if that day were to come; where there would be no other option but to kill you to save you from yourself and to protect others… Yes, I would kill you, without hesitation. And if that day were to ever come for me… I'd expect nothing less from you either."

"I promise. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you."

"She would want us to kill her." Kes inputted the code to allow her and Picard entry into the quarantined area. "But we don't always get what we want, do we? Your barriers were too weak. They broke down over time and ultimately failed. You will erect new ones and I will reinforce them. You know where they are needed so you will assist me."

"All right." Picard closed the sickbay off to the rest of world as he moved towards the biobed that contained Janeway. "We go when she was at her most uncontrolled. We will start with Tau Ceti Prime."

Kes nodded as she took in deep calming breaths and closed her eyes. She placed her fingertips on her right hand to Janeway's forehead. Her other hand held one of Picard's while his left hand mimicked her right's.

Violet colored energy flowed in waves off of Kes intercepting and mingling with the ice blue light projecting off of Picard. Their eyes went white as they entered Janeway's mind. Back to the point where Janeway could no longer control the hunger she kept buried deep within her. The hunger that could consume the world.

CHAPTER 78

Within the mental plane of Kathryn Janeway's mind stood Kes and Jean-Luc Picard as phantoms, witnesses to the anguish of a woman they both respected and perhaps loved more than either of them realized or would like to. Kes tightened her hold on Picard's hand as the horrific sound of a leather whip striking vulnerable flesh sounded in the small, stone-walled room that was Justin Tighe and Janeway's cell.

"Again!" Gul Camet's cruel voice echoed off the grimy walls and there was no mistaking the pleasure he was receiving from the pain inflicted upon his order. His grin grew wider when the leather struck again and caused the small, weak woman to scream out in pain. Heat moved through his body at the thought of what other noises he would elicit from her. He figured she would grunt and moan like a whore beneath him. "Again."

"You fucking bastard! I'm going to rip your head off!" Tighe pulled against the restraints that held him to the floor as he tried to create enough of an energy field to release him from his bonds. His attempts only resulted in him yelling out in pain as the feedback surge burned his body from the inside out. He spat thick, dark blood onto the fifthly floor and tried to look at the woman he loved with every fiber of his being. Tighe tried to convey that love through his eyes. He sought out her dark gray eyes to see if she understood his love for her. And the pain he felt that he couldn't protect her like he had promised during their first night together.

With no little effort Janeway lifted her sweat and blood drenched features so that she could bestow upon Justin a smile that conveyed her own love, her forgiveness, and her certainty that somehow they would make it out of here. She knew from the blood that still escaped between his lips that the probability of their escaping this place alive was fading fast.

Janeway saw stars and her shoulder jerked out of alignment when Camet's fist caused blood and pain to explode across her right cheek. She gasped in pain when he jerked her upright by pulling harshly on her hair. No noise could escape her when he held her a few inches off the floor with a hand around her neck before he threw her to the ground. Janeway heard something break and she wondered if it was her neck. She heard Justin's voice, loud and unforgiving, coming from somewhere far away. She struggled and finally won her consciousness and wondered immediately why she had even tried.

Justin's flesh that was exposed through the tattered suit he had worn with such elegance earlier in the evening to celebrate his birthday was a bright and angry red color with splotches of ashen black. What worried her most was the way his eyes had darkened to pits of obsidian and blood seeped out of his ears.

"NO!" Janeway was not going to let Justin die in this horrible place. Despite the broken bones, the lacerations on her back, the bruises, and the pain from the power inhibitor imbedded in her chest she was not going to let the man she loved die. She tried to call up her energy reserves and found herself wanting. She tried to absorb the ambient energy around her, from even the body heat emitted by the men in the room, but it only resulted in a nearly debilitating pain to permeate her entire body. As blood fell from her mouth in a pool on the stone floor she knew she had failed. At least, she reasoned, they would die together.

The cold water dumped onto her caused her to gasp for breath and to become alert painfully fast. Water mixed with blood sputtered from her mouth as was pushed onto her mutilated back. She cried out when her broken ribs and leg collided into the hard stone.

"Restrain her to the ground." Camet retrieved a surgical knife from his tray of his favorite torture devices. He held the knife up for inspection while his trio of men did as they were told. They knew not to play with their toy yet, but he smiled at their looks of eagerness. His eyes took in the small battered form chained tightly to the ground with her arms restrained above her head and her legs only minutely covered by her tattered skirt. He turned his gaze to Justin who was breathing heavily with a gurgle of blood in his lungs sounding loudly with each intake of air. "Now the fun begins. What sorts of noises will she make? Please tell me she's a screamer."

"Kathryn. I've always loved you." Justin Tighe screamed as he released the energy he built up in his system beyond what his body could possibly take. His body flashed white-hot as the heated plasma flooded the room and incinerated everything and everyone in its path. Everyone except the woman he had just given his life for.

"Justin!" Janeway ignored her pain as she clamored to Justin's side. She already knew he was dead but she still called to him, pleaded for him to just open his eyes. Through her tears she could barely make out his face and charred body, but she held him tightly to her naked chest. She rocked him slowly in her lap as she was racked with painful sobs of loss and uncontrollable fury.

Through the haze of anguish she felt something calling out to her. Something on the arctic surface. The cold-fusion generator coaxed her with its promise of strength, of power. Gently she lowered Justin to the floor. Her body coated in his blood she created a hole in the rocky ceiling of the cell. She used the energy Justin's final act had given her and flew towards the source of the enticing energy.

"Leave."

The operators immediately heeded the fiery woman's orders and nearly tripped over themselves in order to escape.

"Beautiful." Janeway looked at the immense energy with deep hunger clear on her features as she reached out and touched her hands to the core.

"Warning: core breach imminent. All personnel evacuate immediately. This is not a drill. Core breach imminent."

Janeway ignored the computer's voice as she concentrated on opening herself completely to the expulsion of immense energy that would be occurring soon. She erected a force field around her and the core, though it was more to prevent precious energy from escaping rather than any forethought to the lives at risk.

"Warning: core breach—"

Janeway moaned aloud from the pleasure of being filled with so much energy, so quickly, and so completely. She thought of how it felt when her energy would mingle with Justin's during their love making and she pictured his handsome face as the waves of pleasure and energy kept coming.

The building shook and crumbled around her, but she didn't care to notice since she was safely enclosed in her force field with the energy of the core only now gradually dissipating. Janeway rose from the ruins of the plant like a great fiery wraith. The night sky was set ablaze as flames continued to burst forth from her body.

"That is what we must contain." Picard laid a gentle, albeit completely figurative, hand on Kes's shoulder. He knew she hated him for showing what had caused Janeway's break, but he needed her to understand. The hunger was perhaps always a part of Janeway, though more subconscious and controllable than it was presently, and it needed to be suppressed.

"How? How did you do it last time?" Kes emotions were in turmoil. Picard was right. She did hate him, at least a little bit, for showing her Janeway's most painful moment. It did help Kes understand how such a carefully controlled woman could lose it completely. Kes considered that was why Janeway always seemed at times almost forcefully controlled.

"I had help."

Before Kes could ask what Picard had meant their surroundings shifted to that of a brilliantly purple-lit but barren plane where its only occupants were Kes, Picard, and the blazing from of Janeway. It was then that Janeway became aware of their presence.

Kes struggled out of Janeway's grasp as she was being hoisted high above Picard whose mental bolts seemed only to strengthen Janeway. "You shouldn't have come, Kes. But I can't say I'm not pleased that you did."

"Kathryn, stop this." Kes tried not to panic as she felt her psychic energy being funneled into Janeway. She was struggling to merely maintain on the mental plane.

The moment before she was to hit the ground Kes righted herself and floated a few feet into the air next to Picard. She didn't realize what had happened until Janeway, like a comet, fell to the ground with another being on top of her.

"We're starting to weaken." Picard had one hand to his temple as he concentrated on shoring up his powers. "Even comatose she's draining energy from us."

A fiery blast from the fallen Janeway propelled her assailant towards Picard and Kes who used her telekinesis to catch the woman before she could come to any more harm. Kes felt a rush of relief flood her when Kathryn Janeway, dressed in one of her headmistress-y suits, faced her with a look of complete resolve on her elegant features.

"Kes, you shouldn't be here. Neither of you should." Janeway erected a force field around the three of them to prevent the fiery blasts coming from her counterpart to touch them. "I don't think I'll be able to contain her this time."

"You must do more than merely contain." Picard grasped Janeway by her shoulders as he looked pointedly at her. "It was wrong for us to try to just hide her away in the recesses of your subconscious. It was inevitable that she would reemerge."

"What do I do?"

"Don't fight her." Kes smiled softly, her voice quiet despite the sound of energy colliding with energy. "She thinks this is a battle to be won. She wants to take over completely. Show her that she doesn't. That you won't destroy her just because she's a part of you that you wish wasn't. Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light? Don't fear your negative thoughts. They're a part of you. She's a part of you. The part that is consumed by pain and anger. She seeks out sustenance because it allows her not to feel. Show her how feeling things deeply doesn't mean she's weak."

Janeway moved out of Picard's hold to stand, with a gentle smile, in front of Kes. She embraced Kes and allowed the other woman's thoughts and emotions to enter her in waves of purple energy. She released Kes after she placed a soft kiss upon her forehead and smiled brightly. "I love you too. Now go."

"Wait!" It was for naught since Kes had already been expelled from Janeway's mind along with Picard.

"Kes, are you all right?" Picard picked Kes gently off of the floor where he had found himself as well.

"Kathryn?" Kes expelled the name on a gasp as she and Picard looked at the empty biobed then to the hole in the wall that had obviously been blasted through to allow Janeway's escape. Kes nearly fell to her feet as the ship shook around her. "My God. What have we done?"

"Kes, wait!" Picard was too late. Kes had recovered much quicker than he did and she propelled herself out of the sickbay at an incredible speed surrounded by violet colored energy.

Kes ignored Picard's voice and blocked her mind from his telepathy as she flew towards the brig. She felt cold anxiety fill her when she saw that the brig was empty aside from Worf, who for the second time that day, was lying unconscious on the floor with a large burn on his chest that was only now healing.

"Where are you?" Kes knew she wouldn't be able to locate Janeway, whose mind was impervious to telepathy, but she could find Regina.

"Kes?" Harry Kim appeared in the opening in the ruined remains of the door that led to the brig. "What am I doing here?"

"I summoned you." Kes would have to apologize to Harry later. Right now she had no time to. "I need you to open a doorway"

"Okay, sure." Harry happily complied and only came out of his contentment long after Kes had departed and he stood wondering why he was in the brig in the first place.

CHAPTER 79

The ice and snow evaporated into steam as two beings landed on the remaining ruins of a once highly profitable cold-fusion plant. Despite being completely naked, Janeway felt nothing but heat from the orange blasts of fire that burst forth from her body. The woman in her arms was encased in metal and felt only heat both from the energy coming off of Janeway but also the feeling of being in her embrace. She only felt cold when that touch was gone and it had nothing to do with the arctic environment.

"Why have you brought me to this place?" Regina looked around at her environment, which was white and barren before her eyes settled on the woman standing slightly behind her.

"To exorcise our demons." Janeway looked at Regina, but found it difficult to not see Annika staring expectantly back at her and had to drop her gaze. "I brought us here because this is a dead zone. No concentrated sources of energy within a thousand miles. It's just you and me, Regina, just like you've always wanted it. Right?"

"Yes." Regina went to touch her metallic hands to Janeway's face, but was stopped by firm hands around her wrists. "I've imagined the world rid of all the humans polluting it and belonging to me, to us. And then to our child."

"I don't love you any more, Regina. I love Annika." Janeway's grip around Regina's wrists became harsher and began to burn the metal covering vulnerable flesh. "And you stole her from me."

"I stole nothing but what was rightfully mine." Regina broke Janeway's hold with anger on her features. Anger and disappointment. The damaged metal along her wrists sunk into flesh before it was released again completely healed. "You have no idea who, what Annika is. After the car accident she was brain dead, the only thing keeping her alive was a respirator until I found her. Her memories, her experiences, her very sense of self were fractured so I supplemented them. With my own. I know you still love me, Kathryn, because you love her."

"I don't believe you." Kathryn felt like her blood was on fire as she tried to convince herself that Regina's words were a lie. But a part of her knew it wasn't. It was so easy for her to fall in love with Annika perhaps because long ago she had felt something similar growing within her regarding Regina. But it never could blossom fully with Regina, she wouldn't allow it. Regina was too damaged, too filled with anger and hate, too dangerous for her to give her heart completely.

"Yes. I think you do." Regina could see emotions warring within Janeway, but knew her touch was not welcomed so she kept her distance. "Why did you bring us here? I know what happened below the ground. This is where he died. Where Justin died."

"Don't you say his name!" Janeway's eyes blazed with a seemingly unlimited inferno that blazed within her. "They stole him from me. Like you stole Annika from me. I want her back!"

"What are doing?" Regina felt a billion different points of her body screaming out in pain.

"I'm going to burn you out of her." In Janeway's mind she saw Annika smiling at her, icy blue eyes filled with love. She could almost feel her arms around her and her lips upon her own. Tears evaporated before they could escape her eyes as she continued to pour torrents of white-hot energy onto the crouched metal form before her.

"Kathryn, stop!"

"You shouldn't be here." Janeway could already feel her body absorbing psychic energy from Kes. Not enough to harm the other woman, but enough that Janeway had a taste. She ignored the voice that begged her to let her hunger consume her. She concentrated on picturing Annika smiling and beautiful in her mind instead. Her voice was filled with rage as she continued to pummel Regina with energy. "Give her back!"

"NEVER!" Large metal panels sprouted from Regina's back to perform as a shield against Janeway's wrath. With each increasing layer she could feel herself gaining the upper hand. Annika's metal encased body was nothing if not durable. What Annika's body could not shield Regina from was a mental attack.

Kes shut her eyes tightly as images began to enter her mind at a rapid pace. The image of a truck and then darkness. That blackness was soon replaced by green tinted liquid and voices that seemed very far away, one was Regina's. Soon millions of images were overcoming her. Visions of being a child, of a father and mother who loved her. He liked old sci-fi shows and she enjoyed reading late into the evening. In her twenties she traveled the world after she received her PhD in computer engineering. She had many lovers but no one could fill the emptiness she felt so she moved from one woman to the next. She worked for a company until men in black and masks with guns and cruel voices abducted her. She was rescued, saved from torture and death. And then there was Kathryn. An angel with demons weighing heavily upon her shoulders. A woman, who smiled often but not openly, surrounded by people who loved her, respected her, would die for her but forever alone, frightened of getting too close. She broke through though. Her innocence, purity, her sense of doing what was right not what was easy drew Kathryn to her. Kathryn's lips upon hers. Soft gentle hands caressing her features. She no longer felt empty.

Regina screamed in rage rather than pain, since Kes had compassionately turned off her nocicpetor as she did what she had promised hours ago in the brig of the Enterprise. She ripped Regina a part.

"My God." Janeway could only watch, horrified as Kes drew more green viscous liquid from the writhing metal form. The screams were becoming unbearable, but she knew Kes had to be allowed to proceed.

More of the green-tinged fluid emptied onto the ice covered ground as Kes concentrated on parsing out every single microscopic nanoprobe Regina had injected into Annika's body that had allowed her to take total control. Even with her incredible mental abilities, Kes was beginning to breathe heavily and sweat formed across her forehead from the immense exertion it took to rid Annika of Regina McQueen.

Kes fell to her hands and knees upon the cold earth though she still maintained her arduous task as Regina's maddened screams echoed in her mind. She felt darkness begin to close around her, but fought it off with all of her might as she drew still more of the intrusive substance from Annika's body.

The metal sheath was absorbed as Annika was finally rid of Regina and her body stilled as it fell to exhaustion. Her breathing was even as her chest rose and fell reassuringly. Kes, conversely, was breathing heavily and taking in huge gulps of air warmed by the insulating dome Janeway had formed around them.

"Kes?"

Gentle, warm hands cupped her face and Kes lifted her violet glowing eyes to the worried expression that graced Janeway's features. The concern in Janeway's gray eyes faded as Kes smiled despite her fatigue.

"I'm all right. Just tired." Kes pushed herself into a sitting position with the help of Janeway's strong hands around her. "We did it."

Janeway shook her head in disagreement. "You did it."

"Kathryn, go to her." Kes could easily detect the hesitation without being a telepath. "She'll need you now, more than ever. Her mind, her body has gone through an immense trauma."

"I brought this upon her." Janeway's eyes were filled with tears, her voice low and husky. "Regina—"

"What Regina didn't realize in her manipulations was that she gave you a gift." Kes touched the tips of her fingers to Janeway's face, collecting tears as she did. "A precious gift."

"I do love her, Kes."

"I know and she loves you."

Kes watched the ice beneath Janeway bare feet melt away as the heated energy emanating from her body caused flames to lick at the ground. The blaze was extinguished once Janeway knelt over Annika's prone form and brushed blonde hair from her still features. She could almost see the love emanating from Janeway who hugged Annika to her uncaring of her own nakedness and the sticky green residue that covered the slumbering woman's form liberally.

"She's not waking up." Janeway's worried voice brought Kes out of her reverie.

"She's all right, Kathryn. She just needs rest. Her body has been through quite an ordeal." Kes tried her communicator and was disappointed when a beep indicated it was functioning properly.

"Too much electro-magnetic interference. From the plant meltdown." Janeway stood with Annika tenderly cradled in her arms. "We'll need to do this the hard way."

"Fly back?" Kes wondered if she had enough energy, despite how she had already begun to recover. "You can't carry Annika and me both and I can't make it to the US, not yet anyway."

"Unfortunately I was thinking of somewhere a little closer." Janeway held the woman in her arms closer to her as she began to glow faintly in preparation for her low energy flight. "I'd like to get Annika into a UFM sickbay as soon as possible."

Kes smirked. She already knew the answer by Janeway's expression of resignation to the upcoming ordeal before she voiced her one word question. "Australia?"