Disclaimer: I own nothing of Star Trek or its subsidiaries. I do not own any of its characters, and only have control over the story itself. Any similarities to people living or dead or any other fics is purely coincidental, so there!

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            Darkness. It was all she could see, all she could purvey.

Darkness. There was no light, no sense of being. All there was was she, her thoughts, and nothing more.

For the first time since she had returned to Earth she felt frightened. She had felt uncomfortable at times, sometimes even unsure, but never had she been scared like she was now, not even that first time those many years ago.

Gradually she began to perceive sounds, faint at first but growing with intensity as her mind was finally able to reach out into the darkness that surrounded her. The sounds that now were the only thing that she could latch onto took over her whole, and with every noise her fear grew.

All around her, she could hear them moving. Servo assisted joints propelling the creatures surrounding her. The loud, echoing crashes of machinery the only break in the cacophony of whirring. The sound of mechanically assisted lungs drawing breath into the humanoid beings about her. Even without her sight she knew where she was, and the thought repulsed her. The sounds of the beings around her grew in intensity as she heard a number of them approach her immobile form, and felt their cold breath against her warm skin.

A painfully bright, white light filled her vision, like someone forcing her to look up at a sun through a telescope. The intense light burning against the back of her retina like a hot poker against skin. Almost as quickly as it had come, it disappeared, somehow leaving her with the sense of some control over her body. With a great effort she forced herself to open her eyes, if only to try and confront the fear she again felt gripping her like a vice. At first she could see nothing, except the remnants of the bright white light, but slowly, gradually, her eyes began to focus on her surroundings, and what she saw did nothing to dispel her fears.

Around her stood three of the half organic, half technological beings. Their pale, black lined faces staring down at her with dead, emotionless eyes. With a quiet whirring sound the being to her right raised its arm and began moving some form of scanning device over her body. She went to move herself off of the cold metal table that she was laid upon, but found that her muscles wouldn't, or couldn't, work. Instead she continued to stare up into the faces of her captors, an ever growing sense of dread spreading through her as memories flooded back to the first time it happened to her, and the many times that she had participated in the desecration of the individuality of others. She looked up with hate in her eyes to be met with the blank stare of a creature that neither understood her feelings, nor wished to. Instead it stared impassively at its scanning device, its blue hued eyes showing no emotion as it read Sevens' vital signs from the screen before it. She looked around madly at the three beings seemingly towering over her, and she felt her hate and anger growing with every passing second. If she could just move she would find a way to end this.

She felt the creatures' hand upon her own. It held her left hand firmly, yet tenderly within its own and slowly rubbed its thumb across her palm. She looked down. This was strange, a response she would never have expected from these cold, callous creatures and yet this one event seemed reminiscently familiar. She turned to look at the creature stood on her left that held her hand and, to her surprise, found that it wasn't stood by her at all. Instead she found it sat on a small chair that had been positioned next to the cold, metal table that she was laid upon.

Confusion filled her mind. These creatures were not acting normally. Perhaps the events in the Delta quadrant, those 9 months previously really had affected these beings in ways that no one could have expected. She looked up into the face of the being sat by her and her confusion was replaced with a mixture of fear and anger. Staring down at her, his brown eyes shining brightly, she was horrified to see the face of her lover. His tanned skin now deathly pale, with black lines tracing his face, but clearly Chakotay. With her horror growing she turned toward the creature scanning her and recognised the young nurse who had escorted her to her Aunts bedside. She looked toward the end of the table to the third of the creatures and recognised her closest friend, yet couldn't comprehend how such a thing could have happened.

The Doctor stared up at her from the far end of the 'bed', his entire body as the other two, covered in metallic armour with tubes extending from joints and 'muscles'. She again turned and looked up at her lover, who had begun to tighten his grip on her hand as if in response to her movements. She opened her mouth to cry out, but no sound emerged. She attempted to pull her hand away from the gruesome creature that had taken the form of her partner, but found she had neither the strength nor the control of her muscles to perform such a feat. Instead she closed her eyes as tight as she could and tried to block the sights and sounds that surrounded her out of her mind, only to be brought back to reality by the mechanically synthesised sound of her lovers pleading voice.

"Seven"

            She screamed and pushed him off of her. The chair tipped backwards as his weight shifted quickly without control. He fell to the floor hard, banging his head and leaving him slightly dazed. He heard the muffled sound of the Doctors feet against the carpeted floor as he moved quickly to his side, only for him to wave the attention of his friend away from himself toward the hysterical form writhing on the bed. He pushed himself off of the ground and moved back toward his lovers' side. He looked into her crazed, searching eyes, filled with panic and hatred and involuntarily felt himself shudder. He watched powerlessly as the nurse tried to hold Sevens' writhing form down on the bed to allow the Doctor to press a hypospray to the side of her neck. She collapsed almost instantly as the drug took hold and spread through her nervous system.

Chakotay looked up at the Doctor and could see the lines of concern patterned across his face. He looked at the young nurse, who seemed quite shaken by the ordeal, but had returned to her scanning of the now almost comatose form lying before her. Finally he looked down upon her. His partner, his lover, her face blank showing no signs of the torment that she must be feeling and again he shuddered as he remembered the look in her eyes. The pain, the hurt, and the anger and he wished that he could do something, anything, to help her.

"Chakotay" He looked up at the sound of the Doctors voice and into the eyes of his friend. "Perhaps it would be best if you went home, or at least got your head seen to" he said, motioning toward the graze near his left temple. "There is nothing you can do at the moment" Again the pang of guilt and frustration as the Doctor reiterated the thoughts that he already knew. "She will be out for a few hours, I'll call you as soon as she wakes up but for now there is no reason for you to be here" Anger filled his mind. No reason for him to be here? There was every reason for him to be here. His love was lying unconscious before him going through…who knew what, and he was being told to go home and forget about things.

"With all due respect Doctor, I don't think I'll be going anywhere" To underline his point he turned, picked the chair up off of the floor, returned it to its position by Sevens bedside and sat down.

He heard the Doctor sigh, but said nothing. He turned back toward Seven and again placed his hand on hers. He didn't know if it would help her, or if it would help him, but whilst he was here, and he was going nowhere, he would comfort her as best he could.

            Admiral Kathryn Janeway stormed down the hospital corridor, a nurse in tow. She could hear his voice behind her asking her to wait until she had been given permission by the duty doctor to see the patient, but she ignored him.

When she had received the message from the Doctor that Sevens' Aunt had been taken to hospital, she had told herself that she would make time to visit her and Seven. Since she had returned to Earth she had grown quite close to Sevens' Aunt Irene, and even closer, if it were possible, to Seven herself as she had finally been forced to accept all of her humanity. Now that she had heard that Seven had 'fallen ill', and was in Starfleet Medical, she felt compelled to visit.

She turned the corner leading to the room in which Seven was in to be confronted by a tall, red-haired woman in a Starfleet Medical uniform. "Admiral Janeway" began the woman now blocking her path. "I'm afraid I can't let you down here at the moment, Annika is currently under sedation and we would prefer that she receives no unauthorised visitors for the time being. Only family members and authorised guests are being allowed to visit at this time" Janeway glowered at the Doctor stood before her, but forced herself to remain calm.

"I'm probably as close to family as you'll find," she stated, stepping to her side quickly to move past the doctor. To her annoyance, the Doctor moved just as quickly to block her passage.

"That may as be, but unless I'm mistaken, you're not family," she stated firmly. Janeway looked up into the doctors blue eyes and saw the same strength of will as she herself felt. Janeway sighed.

"Doctor, I understand your position but I must…"

"I realise that both you and Annika are very close" interrupted the doctor "but I cannot allow you to enter without first consulting her physician" As if on queue a voice rang out from behind the female doctor standing in front of the Admiral, bringing a smile to the Admirals face.

"Its alright Doctor Crusher" called the Doctor. "The Admiral has come at my request" Doctor Crusher turned to the Doctor, a look of annoyance on her face before turning back to Janeway.

"Very well, but you have ten minutes only. Then I want you out of my hospital, understood?"

"Of course doctor" smiled Janeway as she stepped past the taller woman and headed toward the smiling face of her friend and colleague. As she walked up to him, she looked back in time to see Crusher disappear round the corner, the nurse in tow. She turned back to the Doctor, a look of concern in her eyes. "How is she?"

"Honestly? I don't know," sighed the Doctor. "She's been asleep now for about five hours. She awoke once screaming hysterically and needed to be sedated, but I can't find anything medically wrong with her" The Admiral nodded solemnly. "The only thing I can find that is even remotely out of the ordinary is heightened activity within her cortical node, however I have no idea whether it could cause this, or any other reaction. Were you able to find anything? Any unknown signals being aimed toward Seven?" Janeway sighed and shook her head.

"I had someone run a full spectral analysis of any and all incoming signals aimed toward Earth, and we found nothing out of the ordinary," she answered. She turned to look through the open doorway into the small room in which Seven was lying, and noticed Chakotay sat next to the bed. "How long's he been here?" she asked.

"He arrived not long after I did," replied the Doctor. "When Seven awoke briefly, he was pushed from her side and grazed his head. Nothing serious, but I would rather he went home and had some rest all the same, but I can't get him to leave her side" Janeway smiled slightly and moved to enter the room. "I'll have a quick chat to him" she assured the Doctor, who stepped back to allow her entry.

As she entered the room Chakotay turned and looked toward her, a warm, yet nervous smile spread across his features as he saw who it was. She moved over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder as he turned back toward Seven. "She's been unconscious for five hours, and hasn't moved for almost three," he said in a distant voice.

"And you?" she asked warmly. He just shook his head in reply.

"I can't go anywhere whilst she's like this" he said, turning toward her, tears in his eyes. "I just …can't" She looked down at her former First Officer. His normally cheery features now tightened in worry, his dark skin looking somehow pale. She smiled warmly at him.

"Go home, get some rest. I'll stay with her 'til you come back" He opened his mouth to protest, but she said quickly "That's an order Commander" He smiled weakly at her, and nodded. She watched as he released his grasp on Sevens' hand, lent over her and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before getting up out of the seat. He turned toward his former Commanding Officer and smiled again. She just nodded and moved out of his way. She watched him as he walked over to the Doctor who reassured him that he would contact him if anything changed. Chakotay turned back to look at Janeway, but instead looked straight past her, his eyes wide. Janeway turned quickly and saw that, unnoticed by anyone else, Seven was now sitting upright and staring straight ahead, sweat pouring off her. The Admiral leaned forward and touched her lightly on the hand. "Seven" she whispered. The former drone turned toward her, her eyes staring straight through them, fear evident on her face. "Seven" she pushed "Seven, what's wrong?" As if noticing her for the first time, Seven looked straight into Janeways' eyes and said, in a cold distant voice,

"They are coming"

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A/N: Hello people, long time no…update! Yeah, sorry about that. Many problems with finding time to write between work and life, not to mention a rather big problems with re-writes and Word itself! Couldn't write anything for a time.

Anyhew, notes of importance. Yes, Dr Crusher is her off ST:TNG, for those few who haven't seen ST:Nemesis, or at least the extra scenes, she was transferring to Starfleet Medical so wouldn't be on Enterprise, so its all still canon, hooray!

Also, does anyone know a simple way of working out Stardates? I've found things that say how its done using some mathematical formula, but I'm not v good at maths so can't do it right!

Anyway, hope this didn't disappoint after the long wait and please review! CHEERS!