Chapter 8

(updating weekly or so)

A storm of purple lightning grew and grew, creating a cloud that began to spread over the huge room. At the center of it all was Kes, shining lights spreading throughout the room where the lightning wasn't. Purple light shone in her eyes. Her hair stood on and end and then whipped around as the wind picked up and she floated further off the ground.

The lightning scored the ground all over its surface.

"I think I might be angry at you, Nee lix," She said. Kes felt so strange. She wasn't sure what was happening, either with her body or her mind.

"You just might be right, sweetie," Neelix said. How had he noticed her before. He'd been so distracted! He needed to end this quickly or he was done for in more ways than one.

"You have to admit, you are kind of a vile snake," She said. She was breathing hard now, and found her mouth was opening . Some noise came out like she was staring to build towards a screaming crescendo.

Neelix gripped the harvester. Sorry sweetie, he thought. He idly wondered how much the internal organs of a crazed out Ocampan would go for. Time to find out!

He whipped out the device and pointed it right at the Ocampan's chest. Which, of course, meant tat he was aiming it up into the air since she kept rising.

As if she was waiting for him to do that, Kes matched his movement with one of her own.

A wave of distorted reality, inside all the blinking lights flew through the air at seemingly the speed of thought.

"Snake!" she shouted out as it struck the device-

Which promptly turned into a snake.

Neelix dropped it instantly as the snake immediately tried to bite him. It hit the ground and began slithering away from the storm of chaos. Lightning was hitting lights, making sparks shower down on them.

Damage was also starting to show in the shuttle bay doors beyond, since they were fully shut currently. It was piercing through them like it was a thousand headed snake itself. Ozone filled the air and a light smoke began to fill the air with all of the items in the Shuttlebay sustaining damage.

"Who are you, snake?" The being that looked an awful lot like the Kes he used to know asked. "How can one person lie so much?

Neelix dutifully retreated to behind a crate of shuttle parts close to where he had hid from Tuvok, right up against the corner. He racked his brain for what he could possibly do. All he had left was a lousy federation phaser, and he had a funny feeling he'd end up shooting himself if he tried to stop the living storm in front of him.

Kes screamed out and a torrent of lightning fired out from her hands and hit the crate. The bag the parts had been in burst into flame and burnt parts sprayed the area all around him. He felt pain on his legs but it seemed he had missed most of it.

Suddenly he felt a strange sound coming from behind him. He turned to look. The Shuttlebay doors were gone. The whole thing. Disintegrated instantly. The void of space was beyond and he struggled to breathe. He started to float up, towards the opening and windmilled his arms and legs as gravity seemed to flicker for a moment power came and went. Finally, power was restored as a forcefield flicked on and Neelix fell back to the ship's floor roughly.

Not missing a beat, he rolled immediately, and another lightening bolt hit the place where he had just been, scorching the floor.

He ran as hard as he could laterally across the space, finding cover behind another crate.

This is even worse than with darling monster, he thought. How could he get to the door? Should he try flying the shuttle inside and stopping her that way?

Kes threw back her head and struggled for control.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Kes said. A window opened up next to her, and Neelix thought that he saw darling monster, just for a second. But nevermind that, something was bothering him. What was it? The crate?

"You've hurt so many people, " Kes said. "I was probably the least of them. She took a breath and seemed to focus. She held out both her hands. The wind was really going now, and Neelix had to struggled not to be blown off the ground. His hair and clothes were whipping around. The wind was centering around Kes, and her hair was twisting in the air like it was at the heart of a tornado.

In her right hand, crackling lightening appeared. In the her left, it looked like reality was warping, like something was bending it at is base as everything looked distorted. Normal than like through different lenses, everything out of joint.

He had to get out of here. And not just because of the angry telekinetic. At the same time, both projectiles fired right through the air at him.

He dove forward for some reason, before breaking off to the left. As he did, his brain informed him that the crate he was hiding behind said 'armament' on it.

Right, it was explosive material Fake Neelix had traded for just a few weeks ago. He sped off to his right as hard as he could, dodging the lightning and trying to as far away as he could. As he ran from it, trying to get around where the storm that was Kes hovered in the air, he saw lightning strike the box out of the corner of his eye.

That's why he completely forgot about the distortion of reality and the wave hit him full in the face, centering on his right eye. There was some kind of sound then, which reminded him of the sucking sound from open vacuum he had just heard a second ago. Except this time, instead of air rushing by him, it felt like reality.

Then, without fully understanding what-

Something in the right side of his face-

Changed.

Next he heard was an explosion, deafening, and he lost his feet before the world started spinning upside down.

There were just images here and there. He felt the wind dying down. He saw much less purple lightning. There were twinkling lights, like fireflies in the Great Forest all over the room.

And Neelix felt pain. More than he had ever felt, more than when Darling Monster had almost killed him. He had not enough Vidiian material left. He had used the majority of what he had on Darling Monster. The scanner in his pocket was informing him uselessly to seek medical intention in that hissing Vidiian, so he knew that much.

He took big gulping breaths as he lay on the ground. His face and his legs hurt like crazy. His left side too. He couldn't help but let a few groans of agony escape his lips.

"It's too much, in my head and out," He heard Kes whispering. She was breathing heavily, hyperventilating.

Oh god, she's awake, Neelix thought. He cautiously opened his left eye. He was sitting facing the destroyed Shuttlebay doors. Something about that was odd, but he put it out of his mind for the moment as he scanned the room to get his bearing.

Why was he facing space? He had been heading in the opposite direction.

Then he remembered that he had looked back while running. Couldn't help himself. He had turned his arm and the left side of his face towards the incoming explosion. Pieces of the ammunition box were everywhere, strewn throughout the room. Some were still on fire. The computer was saying something about fire suppression systems.

My left arm and face are injured, I can feel it, Neelix thought. Nevermind the Federation authorities, if I don't find somewhere to get Vidiian medicine, I'm going to die. As it was, he was probably going to be permanently scarred.

The Vidiians were far more advanced than the Federation medically, but there were somethings even they couldn't do.

He forced himself to get to his feet, keeping his good eye on Kes. She was on the ground near where space beckoned now. Glass tinkled in his bag, and he recognized the destroyed remains of the rest of his Vidiian supplies. Well, that was that.

"I'm sorry, please don't kick me out," Kes was saying over and over again. Neelix than figured out what had seemed odd before.

Pieces of the destroyed shuttle bay walls were floating through the air, reforming, and merging into the ship seamlessly. Bits of smashed crates were doing that too.

"I can fix it," Kes said, sounding desperate.

Good, she's not looking at me right now, Neelix thought. He tried opening his right eye, and something was wrong immediately. He felt a wave of nausea. He was getting images from it, but they didn't make any sense.

He braced himself against the pain and took off out of the shuttle room. He almost blacked out a few times from the pain, and he also kept banging into the hallway a few times. Something was wrong with his eye. He was seeing something out of it, but it was wrong somehow. Like his eyes weren't working together.

Alarms started blaring on the ship right as Neelix walked into a Transporter room. A security guard was there, and Neelix already had his Federation phaser drawn.

The guard's eyes went wide, looking like a rode in the Great Forest. He did his duty however, and took a shot but it missed high, causing the lights to flicker and die.

At the same time, maybe a faction slower, Neelix returned fire, also missing completely and hitting the transport platform, making it spark.

Not even close.

Neelix staggered, holding out a hand to steady himself against a wall with his left hand. He steadied himself to take another shot.

The man just stared at Neelix, his face showing horror. Neelix managed to just barely hit him in the shoulder, and he went down.

Looking down at his weapon, he saw the setting.

It was on stun.

Of course, Federation standard procedure.

He shrugged and looked down at the prone form.

"You're welcome for not using a Vidiian harvester on you," he said. "That's the Vidiian "stun" setting. Taking a few organs. You Federation types. You've got to be the only species in the galaxy that has such an obsession with never killing anything."

Except he didn't have that weapon anymore, did he?

He shuddered, trying not to think about the last few minutes.

Pushing himself off the wall, his hand left a mark there. He stumbled forward again, accidentally walking close to the console, where he saw his reflection in the mirror.

He was still on fire. Neelix batted at it with his good hand until it went out.

Badly burned.

His right eye impossible from him to even evaluate right now.

Keying in the controls for transporting to a designated area of the Ex-Vidiian colony, he set a delay, and managed to get onto the transporter pad on time, one of them still sparking.

Hopefully this won't scatter my atoms to the four winds was his last thought.