Author's Note: Sorry this has taken so long, but life happened. (Just my way of saying I've been too bust to write!) I hope the next one won't take so long! ~Cheeky.

JACK:

I felt a strange, but familiar feeling come over me, rather like what I felt when I went through the 'gate or used the ring transporters. The bridge of USS Voyager dissolved around me, only to be replaced by a dark metal room.

I heard a sound, and I spun, my hands going for my weapons. But it was only Riley. She had already drawn one of her automatics and held it in a two handed grip, pointed at the floor.

Her P-90 was slung around her back and she still wasn't wearing a shirt, so the knives strapped to her forearms glinted dully in the dim light. I turned to look for Daniel and Mia, but found several others instead.

"They're not here." Riley said in her harsh voice, meaning our missing team mates.

I nodded and looked at the others in the room. Captain Janeway was looking at me, and standing next to her was the blond woman from the infirmary. Seven, I think her name is. Tom Paris was also here and standing next to him was a tall woman who didn't look quite human.

"Where are we?" I asked Janeway.

"My guess would be an assimilation chamber." She said. "Seven?"

"You are correct, Captain." Seven replied.

"Assimilation chamber?" I asked. "You mean we're on the Borg . . . " I searched for the right word.

"Cube?" Janeway said. "Yes."

I raised an eyebrow at Janeway's calm tone. I shot Riley a look and she nodded slightly and tightened her grip on her gun. "What's the plan?" I asked the Captain.

"Plan?" she echoed. "To wait."

At her words, Tom Paris glanced at her, interrupting the quiet conversation he had been having with the tall woman. "We wait?" he asked. "Captain . . . "

"Yes, Tom." Janeway replied.

"An attack right now would be futile." Seven agreed. "As Voyager remains in need of extensive repairs."

I nodded to Janeway. It made sense to wait until Voyager was better able to help us. But, just like Tom, I didn't like the idea of waiting in the middle of an enemy's ship. I looked at Riley and motioned her towards the back of the room and out of earshot.

"What do you think?" I asked her.

"About the plan?" she asked. "It's probably the only viable one we have."

"I agree."

We turned and walked back to the others. Then I looked at Riley. I could see that, even though it was our only option, she didn't want to stay still. I shook my head at her, hoping to persuade her not to do something foolish, before finding a place to sit down against the wall. Riley joined me a second later, as did Seven. I looked over at her, but she did not speak. Neither did I, and unlike other people, she seemed not to need to fill the silence that followed.

Janeway was talking quietly to the tall woman - I still did not know her name - and Tom Paris. The seemed to be occupied in whatever it was they were talking about, so I did not intrude. After a few minutes, though, Riley broke the silence. "Why are you named Seven?" she asked.

"It was my designation, as I'm sure Captain Janeway told you. I was Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct of uni-matrix zero one." Seven said.

"I apologise. I remember the Captain telling us that." Riley replied.

"There is no need." Seven said. "There was a lot of information for you to assimilate."

Riley nodded. Then she cocked her head to the side, thoughtfully. "What do you feel, coming to a place like this again?"

Seven looked at her thoughtfully. "I feel sad, because my life is no longer part of the collective, but it is a fading sadness. I also feel a longing to be part of it once more. Despite what many may think, being a Borg drone was a peaceful existence for me."

Riley nodded. "Thank you, Seven." She said, understanding what it was like to reveal personal feelings like that.

"Why do you want to know about being a drone?" Came a woman's voice.

I looked up and saw the tall woman standing above us. "I was curious." Riley said.

"About what?" she snapped. "Something that takes people and forces them to change into something else? I thought you fought against that kind of thing?"

I could see Riley tense as she absorbed the aggression in the woman's words. "I was curious about what Seven felt. I wanted to see if there was a difference in our enemies, and I think there is."

"Oh?" the woman said. "And what difference is that?"

Riley stood up and leaned towards the woman, her voice getting lower and more controlled. "The Borg seem to share things. The Goa'uld do not."

The woman opened her mouth top retort, but Janeway's firm voice interrupted her. "B'Elanna." She warned.

Riley cocked her head to the side, a predatory look in her eye. "Riley." I said levelly. "No."

"No?" the woman - B'Elanna - turned to me. "What don't you want her to do, Colonel?"

"Hurt you." I replied, my tone bland.

"Hurt me?" B'Elanna said. "For what? Speaking the truth?"

"You only speak the truth as you see it." I said. "And no, she would not hurt you for that. But she doesn't like people who tell her that she doesn't fight against those who would take her freedom."

"Well she doesn't seem to want to." B'Elanna said.

I was beginning to get angry now. What did this woman know about our lives? About the pain we felt? About the Goa'uld? Nothing. I looked at her and felt my expression harden into the one that seemed to make people cringe away, and I saw a flicker of fear in her eyes. But it was gone as soon as it appeared. "What is so wrong about trying to understand your enemies? Sometimes it is knowledge like that, that will win the fight against them." I said, trying to keep my tone level.

Something must have crept into my voice, because Janeway gave me a sharp look. B'Elanna looked at me for a long minute, before turning and walking away. She sat down near Tom and continued to almost glare at us. "Do you understand the Goa'uld?" Janeway asked, pulling my attention away from B'Elanna.

"Yes." I replied. "We know what they want, and we know how they act. And because of that we know their weaknesses, so we can beat them."

Janeway shook her head. "I don't know how you can say that all so tonelessly. When I think about all I know and understand about the Borg, I feel anger and sad and frustrated. Don't you?"

"Feel angry about the Goa'uld?" I asked. "Or are you actually asking me whether I feel at all?"

She looked at me, and a flash of apology flickered over her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but I interrupted her. "Yes, Captain. I do feel." I said softly. "It may not look like it, but I do."

"What do you feel?" Tom asked, his voice also soft, as if he was scared I would close up if he wasn't careful. He was right, though. I probably would.

"About the Goa'uld?" I asked, not really needing to. I was just delaying my answer. I didn't really want to think about the Goa'uld, at least past the fact I wanted to destroy them, because of all the pain that it would cause. But the softly curious and need to know in Tom's eye's made the words come out of my mouth.

"Anger." I said. "Because of what they have done to Human's all over the galaxy. Rage at what they have done to my friends. Frustration that we haven't defeated them yet. Pain at all the destruction they have caused . . . " my voice broke at that point, as a picture of Sam flashed before my eyes.

There seemed to be a strange, detached part of myself watching this conversation, and it was amazed by the way a few simple words about the Goa'uld could break my control. I was supposed to be stronger that this, but I wasn't. For some reason, just admitting the effect the Goa'uld had had on my life, seemed almost enough to bring me to tears.

" . . . and the deaths of those I loved. Disgust . . . " I took a shaky breath and tried to force my emotions away, to make the words bland and toneless. But it didn't work. They surged through the gap in my defences and tried to take control, to make me angry and to make me grieve. But I wouldn't let them.

" . . . at what they enjoy doing. But mostly I try not to feel anything at all." I finished.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked into Riley's concerned and understanding eyes. She knew the fight I was going through, the battle I fought against my emotions. Just as she knew the pain I felt in those simple words. "The Goa'uld took almost everything from me. The only way I survive is by trying not to feel *anything*." I whispered.

I closed my eyes against the pain, and saw Sam's beautiful face in front of me. She was smiling, lit up from inside, like she did when she had figured something out, or discovered something new - or when she told me that she loved me. A tear slipped down my face as I tried not to feel the pain building up in my heart. I would not cry and I would not grieve. Not here. Not now.

"It's a choice of survival." I heard Riley explain, her harsh voice echoing eerily of the silent walls. "We either try not to feel anything, or we feel *everything* and the pain slowly kills us from inside."

"Pain doesn't kill you." B'Elanna suddenly snapped. "It makes you stronger."

I opened my eyes to see Riley turn on B'Elanna with anger and deep pain reflecting in her luminous green eyes. "Some pain will." She snapped back.

"Oh?" B'Elanna snapped. "Like what?"

"Like dying!" Riley yelled, leaping to her feet. "When you feel that moment where you accept that you are going to die, and then the darkness comes and you are dead. And then suddenly your not! And you know that it is only a matter of time before they come for you and the torture begins again. That's a pain that will kill you!"

Riley breathed in shakily. "When you see you husband, the man that you love more than anything, die in front of your eyes, again and again. That pain will kill you!"

By now, Riley was yelling almost at the top of her voice, as if the force and volume of the words would somehow convince B'Elanna of the pain behind them. "When you feel the unborn child in your womb pulled from you, and you know that your son or daughter will never have a chance at life because of what some sadistic monster thinks is fun, then you will know pain that will kill you!"

Riley whirled around and punched the wall with enough force to make a loud 'whacking' noise, before she slid down it and began to sob. I felt the memories stir in my head, caused by all the pain in Riley's words, but I squashed them ruthlessly. They wouldn't come out . . .

Riley sobs slowly got softer as she pulled herself together. After a silent minute, she pushed herself up and sat back against the wall, cradling one of her hand's that was beginning to swell. Her eyes were as cold as ever and held not trace of the pain like they had a few minutes ago. The only things that made me believe what had happened before was real, were the tear streaks down her face and the bruised hand she held.

I turned to look at Janeway, and saw four shocked faces looking at us - I don't think I'd ever seen Seven look so human. "And you?" Janeway asked. "What happened to you?"