Disclaimer: Sadly we do not own any of the Voyager characters, ships, plots or universe. They belong to Paramount.

Summary: After a year of being home, Voyager's scattered crew gathers together for one last battle~ but it's not the jolly reunion one might expect… Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Tom, B'Elanna, Harry, Seven, Celes…and some new characters. Enjoy!

Past Re-Visited

By Erin and Rebecca

Chapter 11:

Guilt

Chakotay made his way to the bridge. He had to report in to Janeway before checking on the survivors. Janeway was sitting in her chair reading a report. He had serious doubts that Janeway knew one of the survivors was Tom, or else she'd be down in sickbay.

            Janeway noticed Chakotay's arrival, stood up and pointed to her ready-room. They silently walked in. As soon as the door closed, Janeway started, "Report."

            "The four survivors are in sickbay."

            "Do you know who they are?" she asked.

            "We don't know two of them, but the other two are Tom and Miral."

            Janeway exhaled, not realizing she'd been holding her breath. But then another name came to her, "B'Elanna?"

            "We didn't find her," Chakotay spoke softly. "She's the only one not accounted for."

            Janeway stared out the window for a moment. "We should go down to sickbay, see if they can tell us anything."

            The two headed down to sickbay in silence.

            Janeway knew that she should be prepared for the worst. He had sustained heavy injuries and it was estimated that his ship existed in that condition for several weeks before the Athena found him. Still, it wasn't enough to prepare her for the sight of her old, outgoing, sarcastic helmsman…she almost didn't recognize him.

            When they arrived, the Doctor was in the far corner, treating the wounds on Miral. Harry was standing over Tom.

            "Captain," the Doctor said as she walked in.

            "How are they?"

            "The baby is fine. Just some minor bruises and mild malnutrition."

            "And Tom?"

            The Doctor sighed, "It appears that Tom suffered massive internal hemorrhaging while aboard the Darwin. He's also suffered severe cuts and lost approximately 4 units of blood. I can repair the damage, but it's going to take some intense physical therapy, and quite frankly, a lot of synthesized blood. I think the away team got to him, just in time."

            Janeway nodded and proceeded to the bio-bed. She watched carefully as Harry pulled away and allowed her room to talk.

            "Tom," she whispered.

            "Captain Janeway," he rolled his head over and tried to smile, "…been a long time."

            Janeway placed her hand over his, "Doc says you're going to be all right Mr. Paris. And so is Miral."

            Tom turned away and coughed for a while. Sensing a fit was imminent; the Doctor rushed over and gave him a suppressant to calm his nerves. Once settled down, Tom continued to speak again. "B'Elanna…"

            "I know, we're still looking for her-"

            "No," in between coughs, "B'Elanna…she's- she was- captured."

            "Captured…by 8472?"

Tom nodded.

Janeway looked at Harry, and then back at the patient, "I thought they didn't take prisoners."

But Tom shook his head, "They do now Captain. Why do you think I'm still alive?"

Janeway was getting nervous. She didn't like the way this conversation was going. "What do you mean?"

"If they wanted to kill me, they would have. They took B'Elanna…because they know you would fight for her…they kept me alive so that I could…give you their message."

"Their message?"

Tom began to shift his arms around so he could get to his pocket. "In…in my right pocket."

Janeway nodded to Harry, who reached forward and took the data Padd from Tom. He fiddled around with it for a few minutes and found the file Tom was talking about. Janeway watched in suspense. Harry's face went white as he handed over the data Padd. Carefully, she read the message, "The weak shall perish…Janeway must die."

            Janeway and Chakotay left sickbay a few minutes later, the data Padd still in Janeway's hand. "What's our weapons status?"

            "Annika says that the Borg enhanced weaponry should be ready within five hours."

            "Good," Janeway responded. The two walked the rest of the way to her ready room. "It's my fault."    

            "How is any of this your fault?"

            "I made the alliance with the Borg five years ago. It could have been avoided if I'd listened to you."

            "You made a decision based on what you knew at the time. We'll deal with this situation as we've dealt with every other one; and we'll win. We may have to equip the entire fleet with weapons against Species 8472, but we can defeat them. We have the technology and the know-how."

            Janeway looked out the window of her ready room. "Come on, let's find B'Elanna."

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