Disclaimers apply as usual.

A/N: I'm posting the last chapter of Deception Point, it didn't quite shape up the way I wanted but alas, it's finished. Be looking for the first chapter of the rewrite of Initiations coming soon! Thank you everyone who reviewed, I'll take the time to respond to them as soon as possible. Enjoy this next chapter! Again I apologize for any errors that I missed.

Kathryn tried to keep her composure, knowing full well that the ship she was being held hostage on was about to explode. Glancing slightly to her left she fixed her eyes on Sarah. Why did she ask Sarah to come with her when she knew that the outcome was going to come to this? Chakotay had offered but she had said that Voyager would need him in case of resistance from the Washington. Tuvok had offered as well, and Kathryn had said no because her ship and Chakotay needed a good first officer when she didn't make it back. She'd asked Sarah. Partially because she hoped that Black would listen to her and partially because she didn't think Andrew Benson would hurt Sarah. She'd been wrong on both fronts.

Andrew was stalking the bridge now, every so often his eyes would fix on Sarah's face and they'd flash with several different emotions. The one that Kathryn caught on the most was anger. Angry at a lot of things, Kathryn was sure, but there was definite anger directed towards the young Lieutenant. Being lost in the Delta Quadrant had certainly made her anger, but she assumed that Andrew had more reasons to be angry at this place. He had found his former lover completely changed, not the same person he remembered, but was still in love with her. Only to discover that she was in love with someone else, an ex-felon at that. For a stickler like Benson it had to be a shock for him to find out that Sarah was in love with Tom Paris. And Kathryn knew she was. They could try to hide their relationship as much as they wanted, Kathryn was sure something more than friendship as going on.

The First Officer of the Washington was a twisted stickler though. He was willing to bend the rules to get home but he couldn't believe that Sarah had let a redeeming felon into her heart.

Sarah's eyes followed Andrew's every move. Kathryn wondered what she was picking up but if she made any attempt to speak to Sarah then the guard whose weapon was trained on her would fire and kill her. It was obvious that Black and Benson had thought this out.

"You knew that I'd find out you'd stolen the technology."

"You're a smart officer, they didn't put you in charge for nothing," Black answered her statement coldly.

Kathryn swallowed the lump in her throat. "This is your answer then? Hold us hostages here and do what with us when we get back to the Alpha Quadrant?"

Black's eyes narrowed. "That's up for you to decide. If you decide you're going to turn us in then we'll have to kill you."

"You don't have to do this," Kathryn replied, feeling her heart start to race. What would happen to Michael and Ava if she were to die, not out in the Delta Quadrant, but at the hands of her comrades, or people she had once thought to be comrades. "There's another way. We could contact the aliens that you stole the technology from, maybe they'd be willing to negotiate with us."

Andrew laughed. "You're joking right? They'd shoot us before working with us."

Kathryn shot him a heated look. "Have you tried?"

"They basically laughed at me," Andrew sneered. "The technology will tear your ship apart. Well, they were wrong, we adapted it."

Sarah pleaded with him. "Andrew, they were right, listen to me. If this ship jumps to warp using that technology it will be destroyed." Her sapphire eyes were desperate and she was hoping they'd soften her former lover up, it wasn't having that kind of affect on him. He just glared at her. The Delta Quadrant had changed him in more ways than one she realized then and perhaps a little too late. "I'm sorry, Andrew, that life has been so harsh out here for you. It hasn't been easy for me either. I learned that my mother hid my telepathic ancestry from me, I was held captive for five weeks, raped, abused, morally degraded, but it doesn't mean I've given up on ever seeing home that I'll use a dangerous technology to get there."

He glared harder at her. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because it doesn't have to be this way."

"It's too late to be any other way. Voyager made their decision and we made ours."

"So that's it then," Kathryn said, coldly. "We're nothing but casualties to you aren't we?"

Andrew's face grew hard. "Sacrifices have to be made if we're going to get home to our families Captain Janeway, I'm sorry you feel this way."

Kathryn felt her heart constrict before she spoke. "What about my family? What about Sarah's?" She thought about her children, safely tucked away on Voyager and blissfully unaware that their mother was staring down the barrel of a compression phaser rifle. "I have children, Captain Black, what about them? Are you going to explain to them that I was a sacrifice that had to be made in order for you to get home?"

Black's jaw twitched slightly. "I'll make sure I send my condolences to them as soon as we reach Earth."

"Michael's five and Ava's not yet two, do you honestly think they'd understand your condolences?" Kathryn asked. She knew that she was playing devil's advocate and she was surprised that no one had picked up on the fact that she was lying about her children being on Earth. It was growing more apparent that Black had no idea that Michael and Ava were on Voyager. It was the only angle she had to quite possibly get them out of this situation. "Do you have children Captain Black?"

"Yes, three."

"Then you understand," Kathryn said, easing the cold tone out of her voice a little.

Black shook his head fiercely. "I understand one thing Janeway, and that's to get home to them. I'm surprised you don't want to do the same."

"Yes, I want to get home to them but I don't want to blow myself up in the process," Kathryn responded coolly.

"Sir," the officer at tactical interrupted, "Voyager is trying to hail us. Should I answer them?"

"No," Black snapped.

Kathryn and Sarah exchanged glances. Both officers knew that Black was unaware that Chakotay was a former Maquis and that Voyager had technology that would cut through the Washington's systems to tractor them or to beam Sarah and Kathryn off of the bridge. Kathryn had ordered the systems to be shut down after they had traveled through Gerroan space since they contained a cloaking device but she hadn't ordered them removed; they might come in handy again one day. "My first officer is going to get worried."

Black ignored her. "Raise the shields."

Sarah swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. Black seem determined to keep them here and Andrew determined to kill them all. She wondered when he'd changed. He'd always been cocky, it was something she figured would make him a good officer, and despite the fact that he was easy to get jealous, he'd been good to her. So what had happened? "Andrew, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For...for a lot of things I guess."

He grunted low in his throat. "You're going to have to be a little more detailed on that, Sarah."

She took a deep breath. "Fine then, I'm sorry about the way I broke up with you, it was harsh and I blind sided you. I'm sorry that you've spent the last year and half out here struggling to survive. I'm sorry about the friends and colleagues you've watched die. I'm sorry that you've grown so bitter and desperate that you'll steal and lie to get home and I'm sorry that you have to drag people that you care about down that path with you."

"Little late for all that now, don't you think?"

"Maybe I'm sorry about that as well."

"Yeah, well, saying you're sorry and feeling it are two different things."

Tears started to form in her eyes. She wasn't getting through. He'd erected such high walls that she didn't think she'd every climb over them in the little time that she had left. Her heart thundered in her chest as she realized she never got to say good bye to Tom. The floor lurched underneath her now as something latched onto the Washington.

"Sir!" the surprised officer at tactical sputtered. "Voyager has launched onto us with a tractor beam!"

"Impossible," Black muttered even as a transporter swept him, along with Kathryn and Sarah up and deposited them in Voyager's briefing room.

Commander Chakotay was standing at the head of the table with Lieutenant Commander Tuvok. "Sorry it took so long to get the transporter up," he informed Janeway.

"I was beginning to think you've forgotten about me."

"What the hell is going on here?" Black demanded. "No Federation ship has technology to cut through shields and transport."

Kathryn quirked an eyebrow. "It was technology that we obtained and adapted ethically." So what if she had broken protocol by flying her ship under cloak, it had been done for the safety of her crew. "You're right, I wasn't about to let you get away with what you've done. I'm sorry if you thought you had outsmarted me." She gestured for him to sit. Black reluctantly did so. "Now, the way I see we have to pick one of two options here, the first being that we set a course to the home world that you obtained this technology from and go about properly obtaining it. The other is we dismantle it and join forces until we find another way home."

"Another way home?" Black scoffed. "I'm sorry Captain Janeway, what other way home do you think there is?"

"You never know when another opportunity is going to present itself."

"There are no other opportunities," Black snapped. "It's now or never."

"Let me tell you a story," Kathryn started, her eyes darkening, "several months ago I ordered my engineers to install transwarp technology. It nearly teared my ship apart. I lost seven people, seven good people, and decided to dismantle the warp drive. Now, I could have tried again, but I didn't. The lives of my crew were more important. When we make it home I want to make sure I make it with most, if not all my crew. Don't you want the same, Captain?"

Black seemed to be pondering her words. His face softened for the moment, lost in private torment. "I've seen so many of my people die that I've lost track of how many I have left."

Sarah set her jaw. "If you let them use that technology then more of them are going to die."

His eyes snapped up to hers. "They're not going to be happy."

"That's apart of being captain," Kathryn said softly. "Sometimes, our decisions don't make people happy even if its for the greater good."

A long silence lingered in the room, while Black was seated in his chair with Voyager's senior most officers crowded around him. He finally let out a sigh and looked at Sarah. "You look like your mother," he said simply, "and she would tell me that I'm being a fool. I'm not proud of what I did, Sarah, maybe when you have command someday you'll understand my decisions, however, I've put my crew in danger enough." He stood, squaring his shoulders at Janeway. "Beam me back over to my ship, I'll stand down."

Kathryn was about to give the order when the room tipped violently to one side and Harry Kim's voice came over the comm. "Captain, the Washington just used a feedback loop to break the tractor beam, they're powering up the engines to make the jump. What should I do?"

"Hail them, Mister Kim," Kathryn ordered, leading the way out of the briefing room. Andrew Benson's face filled the screen.

"Andrew," Black said, "stand down."

"Sir?"

"Captain Janeway is right, we can't go through with this. We broke a lot of rules and hurt a lot of people to get this technology," Black said firmly.

Andrew's eyes narrowed on Sarah. "So, you've won. You've convinced him that all hell is going to break loose because of some vision you've had?"

Sarah shook her head. "No, he's doing it for the safety of your crew."

"Sorry if I don't see it that way."

The screen went blank and Sarah felt her hands tremble. Andrew was going to go through it with or without his captain. Janeway was trying to bring the ship about to launch another tractor beam but the feedback loop had damaged it, there was no way they were going to be able to latch onto the Washington now.

Black stood stoically besides her. "Can you beam me back to the ship?"

"You go over there and he launches you die," Kathryn told him.

"I understand that."

"Harry..."

"Yes ma'am," Kim said, running his fingers over the console. "Initiating transport now."

Black was swept up in the transporter beam. Kathryn looked over her shoulder at Tuvok. "How much time does he have?"

"By my estimates, under a minute."

Kathryn let a slow breath. All they could do now was pray.

"Andrew," Marcus Black said gently when he came out of the transporter beam. "It's over."

The young commander furiously shook his head. "How can you say that? We're so close to getting home! We can't stop now."

Black stepped down into the command center, his command center. "For a while I lost sight of what we're all about-exploration. We've been given an incredible opportunity, I know it's one we'd rather not have, but never the less it's been handed to us. Captain Janeway made me realize that I've strayed from that path. I'm so hell bent on getting home and seeing my kids and possibly my grandkids that I'd forgotten what it meant to care for my crew. It's not completely over Andrew. We'll dismantle the technology and join forces with Voyager."

"What purpose would that serve?" Andrew snapped. "Janeway hasn't been out here long enough to realize that protocol doesn't exist."

"No, but if we lose our protocols we lose our last tie to home."

Andrew's fingers lingered over the controls that would either send them home or destroy them. He couldn't believe Sarah would lie, although she'd lost her way if she was dating that loser Paris, but what were the chances that the technology that both crews had tested in the holodecks over and over again backfiring? He shook his again. "I'm sorry Captain," he said his finger pressing the controls, "but I'm not staying one more second in this forsaken quadrant. Janeway be damned."

"Ma'am, the Washington has engaged her engines. The hull is beginning to break up."

"Mister Baytart move us to a safe distance."

The words were barely out of Kathryn Janeway's mouth when Voyager's bridge was suddenly illuminated with the oranges and reds of a ship exploding in a flash. Kathryn set her jaw and shook her head a little. What a waste, she thought as she glanced at the faces of her officers. Chakotay didn't look too surprised, although his face was forlorn, Tuvok's was as emotionless as ever, Harry looked stunned, but Sarah's features were so contorted with a vast array of emotions that Kathryn wanted to gather her up into her arms and hug her. "We did everything we could, Sarah," she said softly, "but we couldn't make him listen."

Sarah nodded, slowly, her eyes fixed on the debris cloud in front of her. "Ma'am, can I be relieved for the day?"

Kathryn put her hand on the counselor's shoulder. "Alright."

Sarah spun about on her heal and quickly fled the bridge. Angry tears streamed down her cheeks upon entering the turbolift. The utter waste of life shocked her. Of course she'd seen this kind of loss before, back home studying Bajor or even here in the Delta Quadrant with the Gerroan's treatment of the Kreyole, however most of those victims had been faceless people to her. Now, she knew the man who'd pulled the trigger and she was angry. She wasn't sure where she was going until she ended up at the holodeck and called Tom's program up.

Retreating to a table in the far corner of the room and refusing any wine that Sandrine tried to offer her, Sarah slumped down into a chair and lowered her head onto her arms. Resting it there for a while she watched the flames flicker in the fireplace, heard the idle chatter of the pool players behind her and the every so often open and closing of the glass doors. Everything seemed detached here. Of course the holograms would not be aware of the vast scale of death that Sarah had just witnessed and even if they were they were programed not to be effected by it. She wished that she had the ability to reprogram her emotions.

Nothing would have change the outcome, she knew this deep down inside but she couldn't help by replay her steps.

"Can I join you?" a voice interrupted her thoughts.

"I thought you were in the brig until tomorrow morning," Sarah whispered when Tom sat down across from her.

"Got out on good behavior," he joked. Her face remained painfully serious. "I heard it was a rough day."

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Rougher than most I guess."

Tom reached across the table and took her hand. "Sarah, you can't blame yourself."

A piano player began to waft out the notes of an old Earth love song, each note haunting as a singer sang about a love lost. Sarah struggled with her emotions for a moment. True the singer was singing about a lover that had left not one that had died but the parallels to the lyrics to how she felt was overwhelming. "I didn't love him anymore Tom, but I can't help but feel sad over his death."

"It's only natural," Tom replied, gently stroking her fingers.

Sarah raised her chin slightly to make eye contact with him. "I'm sad because this quadrant changed him so much. I'm sad and scared it could do the same to us."

"Andrew lost sight of who and what he stood for was. As long as we don't lose sight of that we'll be fine."

For a moment her eyes looked away and he wasn't sure what he said comforted her, but then the music changed to a more happy song and a relieved look settled into her irises. He stood up, holding his hand out to her. "Will you dance with me?"

Sarah got up and took his hand. Tom led her to the dance floor, encircling her waist with one hand and clutching tightly to the other. Slowly he led her around the tiny dance floor. "I didn't know you could dance."

"Well, I had to do something to keep myself occupied while I was in jail."

Resting her cheek against his shoulder she knew that if they didn't lose sight of who they were, they were going to be alright.