Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, I just borrowed them.

Twisting Canon- Part Four

Odd flashes of memory assailed Kes as once more the universe crashed and reformed in infinite patterns of random beauty and treachery. Tuvix faced her, pleading for his life, begging her to sway the Captain's mind and stay his execution, but she shook her head mutely, shutting her eyes, yet she couldn't escape the agonized rasps as she inadvertently boiled Tuvok's blood, resulting in a thirty-seven degree rise in his blood temperature and putting him in shock. The Doctor looked at her aghast, and his expression changed as in a murderous rage, he leapt to subdue an oblivious target, hunching over the motionless body, and a desperate mask slipped down over the Commander's face as he knelt over the Captain, working to revive her but she wouldn't respond, only she was upright, her eyes unblinking as she struggled to remain awake, for Kes' sake…

Now a gun was held to her head and then the Captain lay unconscious on a sofa in the holodeck, with Kes and the Doctor kept an anxious vigil over her, but Kes felt panic rising within her, a burning need sweeping through her body- the elogium- and the ship shuddered around her as the Doctor questioned his status as a hologram, giving in to the illusion of flesh and blood as Dr Zimmerman, human…a Klingon loomed before her, and Kes recognized B'Elanna- and B'Elanna, as the human version of their Chief Engineer worked frantically at a console, trying to win their freedom from- a Romulan! Standing on the transporter pad, looking around in amazement as he realized Voyager really was in the Delta Quadrant, and then she was knocked to the ground – Maje Jabin- and she suppressed a cry of pain, determined not to show weakness, regretting ever having left her home-

Her father smiled at her as he taught her how to identify different plants and flowers in the garden he lovingly tended to, passing on his passion for gardening to her and she asked innocently what life would be like above, on the surface, prompting a troubled look and an admonition that while curiosity encouraged a mind to grow, not all things were meant to be questioned or to be discovered…one of the elders now preached to a young Kes and she kept an attentive expression on her face while dreaming of exploring the unknown, having adventures and her mother's groans sounded loudly in the birthing room as she grasped a bar above her head and groaned again while the doctor and her husband urged her on…

Her universe shrunk, narrowed to a dim focal point and darkness surrounded her- consciousness and self-identity faded, leaving her as a nonentity, and then there was nothing.

Something stirred, a distant beat began, and a mind developed as new life grew. Connections were formed in the brain, and unformed thoughts began, incoherent, disjointed- warmth, contentedness… protected- how? Thoughts were difficult, concentration a difficult task, but that question lingered, dominated. How was this possible? What had happened, was she-? A wail made her scrunch up her face in dissatisfaction, and then she realized it was coming from her mouth. Hastily silencing herself, she opened her eyes to stare at two delighted figures that cooed at their precocious daughter- Kes.

And with that pronouncement, everything at once reversed, or rather, occurred the right way around now, forward instead of backward, but it was too much for her and Kes dropped out of the overwhelming race of memory, losing consciousness with relief now knowing that she must have been saved in time-

In time. She laughed…

"It's working," the Doctor exclaimed ecstatically.

Kes laughed behind him. She continued laughing even as the Doctor and the two Janeways looked concerned at her.

"Kes?"

"What happens now?" she managed to ask them in a rather choked tone. "What- happens, to her, to you?" Her eyes widened and the laughing fit verging on hysteria stopped abruptly. Now she was affected by the dizzying sensations her counterpart had surely felt as different scenes, people, times passed through her mind, and she gripped her head, unable to grip the chaos that churned madly.

The younger Janeway gasped and clutched her head as well, experiencing similar difficulties and fighting to keep her balance. She lost the battle, with Chakotay lunging to catch her falling body just in time to prevent her ending up an undignified huddle on the floor.

"Doctor?" the elder Janeway was also feeling rather odd, but it was rather to do with the way she kept flashing in and out of Sickbay. Her brow furrowed in thought and she sighed. Temporal mechanics. Or at least, she supposed that was the cause. She followed that thought to its logical conclusion and quickly looked at Kes' older counterpart and raised an eyebrow. "What's happening to me?" she thought she already knew the answer.

"What's happening to her," the hologram said tightly, gesturing to Kes' reappeared counterpart in answer, whose figure was similarly phasing in and out of view. "Her body has gone into cellular flux and is destabilizing at the subatomic level. Educated guess? I'd say the same thing is occurring in you as well. There's nothing I can do," he reported, after crossing through the field and scanning her. "I wish I understood this."

"Our molecular structures are losing cohesion?" Janeway asked, wanting corroboration, ever the scientist.

"Kathryn!"

A shout reminded the Doctor of the current Janeway's predicament. The hologram really was not impressed with the day's events, not enjoying continually being left behind in comprehension. By rote, he scanned the Captain, just to reassure the Commander, and as an exercise in redundancy scanned Kes as well. He supposed someone would find the data interesting.

"The Captain's perfectly fine," he looked over at the Commander, who did not appear at all convinced.

"She's unconscious," retorted Chakotay. "Where does that appear in the definition of the word, Doctor?"

"You're right. I'm a Doctor, not a scientist," the hologram returned. "Temporal mechanics are not included in my program. It could be worse, she could be facing oblivion."

The other Janeway grimaced. "That makes me feel better about my fate."

"What happens now?" Chakotay asked uneasily watching the flickering and comatose figures around him.

The Doctor answered sarcastically, "I suppose a blinding white light envelopes us all and reality crashes down on us, like waves on the beach of time, each successive wave wiping out now invalid timelines and rewriting reality around us-" His image flickered, unsteady lines running through him and the Doctor disappeared from sight.

"Doctor?" Kes pulled herself up out of an unfamiliar design of chamber in Sickbay. "What am- Doctor? Computer-" before she could complete the sentence, the hologram had activated himself, complete with irate expression.

"What happened?" they both asked simultaneously. Other voices joined in the chorus; Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay, the former still clasped closely in her First Officer's arms.

Kes looked at the two, then focussed on Janeway and her eyes opened wide as a sudden image of the Captain, older and harshly forbidding her to harm her crew, filling her in on the horrors they had been through since her- departure? A memory of power filling her, a terrible command of her mental powers, allowing her to hurl the Captain against the wall brutally, determined to destroy them all…

Janeway looked at the young Ocampa incredulously. The memories flooding her mind were too real, tinged with feelings that she could too well relate to as her own, were her own, from the future-

"Kes, it hasn't happened," she said firmly, an involuntary shiver transmitting itself to Chakotay's body, and he tightened his hold on her in a moment of nonverbal comfort.

"But what I did- what she did, had done…before," Kes said, clearing her suddenly constricted throat. "What I am capable of."

"Isn't going to happen. Is that understood?" Janeway at last moved away from the refuge she found within Chakotay's grasp and took a few steps towards Kes before remembering the forcefield was still in place. After disabling it, she gripped the Ocampa's arms tightly. "It's different now, they changed it for us, and we don't have to end up that way."

"She was afraid she had bound me to her path," Kes shook her head in reminiscence. "I suppose, whatever happened to her, wherever she is, she's happy that isn't the case. I suppose- we're lucky, in a way, when you think about it."

Janeway raised an eyebrow, a smile appearing at Kes' indomitable optimism. "Oh?"

"Most people can only learn from their mistakes. We have the benefit of hindsight without making the mistake in the first place!" she tilted her head considering it carefully. "Actually, we did make the mistake, only that timeline has been erased and we have our future selves' memories of what happened to learn from- wait, why do we have their memories?" Kes asked.

"I have no idea. And I'm perfectly content to leave it that way."

"Well, Captain, brava for you, but I would like an explanation," the Doctor interjected. "What has been happening around here?"

Her sadness at what had happened to her future self, or what had been her future self, was carefully filed away for further thought later on. Janeway began to think of how she might answer the Doctor's question when a small grin flitted over her face.

"Nothing stranger than usual, Doctor," the Captain said dismissively in answer. "Chakotay? I think we'd better check in at the bridge, take care of any ruffled feathers- Tuvok may be a little discomfited about the occurrences today…" putting her arm through her First Officer's, Janeway gently tugged him towards the door, leaving behind an irate hologram and amused Kes.

Stopping Janeway before they reached the turbolift, Chakotay asked her seriously, "What did happen?"

"What do you remember?"

He gave her an ironic look at the way she sidestepped his question. "Well, mostly, just entering the nebula, expecting the worst…just a normal day- and then, like a dream overlaying those experiences, I seem to remember another Kes, and another you," he shook his head uncomfortably. "It's confusing. I don't know how else to describe it."

"I have the same memories," Janeway said, giving thought to how she phrased herself. "But more complete. I remember this day through my own eyes, yet there is a duality to it, like an echo, thoughts that-" she grimaced, struggling to explain, "could be mine, but I know they're not. And there's also memories of future times…"

"So-what was it?"

Janeway shook her head, and gestured for him to precede her as the turbolift arrived. "Bridge," she called, and then continued, "I really don't know. And, as I said to Kes just before, I'm perfectly content to leave it that way. Second guessing the future is a sure way to drive yourself insane."

"Any predictions?" Chakotay asked her, grinning.

"Only that you'll invite me to dinner tonight," she answered drolly as they arrived at the bridge. "Don't fight it, Chakotay, it's preordained."

"All in your head, actually. But then again…until you learn to cook, or at least, get along with your replicator," he looked at her meaningfully, earning a swat on the arm, "I suppose I'll have to humour you. 1800?"

"That'll be me bringing the wine," Janeway smiled in agreement as she anticipated the evening dinner with pleasure. "1800."

- The End -