I feel I need to put a small warning up here that there may be triggers for anyone who has been raped or sexually assaulted in this chapter. It is merely a mention and not overly graphic in regards to that. If this is a problem skip this chapter.

Tegan Chronicles STV Style 3:

What's Left of the Flag 8

B'Elanna and Tom exchanged a knowing glance when the mammoth screens around the compound flickered to life. There wasn't anywhere they could look without being confronted with the images of Captain Janeway, Tegan, or Tuvok being there. Some of the screens even showed all three images. Outside of the cells were slightly smaller screens scattered about for the guards to watch. She had already heard the pool over how long the first two would last, it made her angry to hear them talking about her friends with such disregard. She bottled up the rage saving it for when she could unleash it on their captors.

She stepped up to Neelix pulling him away from Samantha and Naomi, her eyes stayed steady on the young girl. "There is no avoiding what's about to happen but do your best to protect her from it."

"Of course." His voice quavered slightly as B'Elanna patted his shoulder trying to impart some of her strength to him before she walked over to find Hayley Wellis who was staring at the screen right in front of her while holding young William to her chest.

B'Elanna heard Tegan's voice from the conveniently placed speakers. She had just asked who he was broadcasting it to. She glanced briefly at the screen, knowing she couldn't protect herself from the images, to see Jurroth step up and grab Tegan's lower jaw. She pulled her eyes away and looked at William who was sleeping soundly. "How are you holding up?"

Hayley kept her eyes on the screen as she nodded. "We're fine. What do you think he's going to do to them?"

"I don't know." B'Elanna lied, she knew enough to know that whatever it was it wasn't going to be pretty.

When Jurroth returned not even a full hour later he had a cart with him. He had lost the doctor somewhere along the way. Tegan let her eyes wander over the cart; she recognized several daggers whose double edged blades gleamed under the harsh white light and something that she thought was a torch of sorts lying on the tray. She moved her eyes to Jurroth as he shed his leather jacket and flexed his muscles. He had scar tissue littering his biceps and forearms and several spots on the flesh she could see that his black tank top didn't cover that she was certain had been left behind by the bulbous rod.

She started to put the pieces together. "You've been beaten."

Jurroth's eyes darted to hers and a sadistic grin spread over his lips as he picked up one of the shorter daggers and drug it along his forearm leaving a razor thin strip of blood in its wake. Before she realized what his was doing Jurroth flipped the handle in his hand so the blade faced away from his thumb and buried it in her thigh up to the hilt, using his hips he trust against it pushing it as far as it would go.

She inhaled her would be cry causing the muscles around her fractured ribs to scream out in pain even as tears flowed from Tuvok's eyes. Normally he would have been able to redirect the pain but he too had been caught off guard. He wasn't sure how she had managed not to cry out.

After a few minutes she composed herself enough to speak. "This is a penal colony, or it was. But you aren't the guards."

He stepped close enough she could feel the heat radiating off his body as he grabbed the knife that was sticking out of her thigh and wiggled it slightly. His cold black eyes bore deep into hers as if they were seeking out her soul. "How astute."

She ignored the pain of the blade moving. "You killed the guards?"

"Not before I got the information on how to run the transporters." He breathed his moist foul smelling breath into her face. "It wasn't the first time I killed."

"You're a murderer?"

"More so than you." His eyes were still searching for something from inside her. "You've killed out of a sense of duty and to survive. I've killed because I like it, because it gives me a rush." He licked his lips. "That isn't all I did."

Her stomach felt like a school of panicked fish were trying to escape from a predator inside it as she felt his fingers slip into the elastic of her boring gray Starfleet issued underwear. She froze for half a second but before his fingers could move further down to explore her sex, she brought her knee up deftly connecting with what she hoped was his manhood.

From behind him Janeway tensed knowing what he was doing and that there wasn't a damn thing she could do to stop it. She couldn't give up the command codes to save anyone of the members of her crew from being sexually assaulted, raped, tortured or even killed. She didn't believe in 'sacrifice one for the good of the many', but when it came to this it was duty. She wished it wasn't. As she watched Jurroth roll into a ball and cry out in pain she swelled with a sense of pride over the fact Tegan didn't need as much protecting as she might have thought, or even as much as some of the other members of her crew. Even though her military record had eluded to as much, it was nice to see it for herself. A small grin danced quickly over her lips as she realized Tegan had thwarted his current and possibly any attempts for the foreseeable future, as he continued to groan.

"Did they torture you for raping and killing women?" Tegan spit the venomous accusation at him. Not that she felt anything was worthy of inhumane treatment of prisoners. She felt it was right to either imprison them for their crimes or execute them according to the governing laws, but in her mind torture never fit the bill.

"They didn't care what we did." He straightened up and growled at her and reached over for the energy prod he had used earlier and swung it connecting with her already broken ribs. Tuvok cried out as she closed her eyes to block their glow from view. She couldn't let Janeway see her weakness, her pain. "It didn't matter if we were murderers, rapists, child molesters, or petty thieves. We were all brought here and the guards treated us all the same." He turned and looked at Janeway. "We only want your vessel to escape this hell hole."

"This isn't the way to go about getting help." Despite hanging in a precarious position Captain Janeway still managed to exude a sense of command.

He jerked the knife out of Tegan's thigh and turned to Janeway, before she could note that he'd managed to miss any major blood vessels he brought it up to her lips. "I don't want your help, I want your vessel."

"That's the one thing I can't give you." She didn't flinch as he ran the sharp blade over her lip cutting it open.

He turned back to Tegan and stabbed the dagger back into her thigh a few inches to the right of where it had been. "By the way bitch, kick me in the groin again and I'll make you regret the day you were born."

"Someone already beat you to it." She grinned mirthlessly at him and he punched her in the lower gut.

"Must you goad him?" Tuvok moaned when they were left alone once again with the camera spheres floating around them.

Tegan turned her head to Tuvok. "I'm sorry but he was…"

"I am not referring to you kicking him. However you could be a little less sarcastic."

She thought that was funny coming from Tuvok who despite his Vulcan ways often seemed overly sarcastic to her. She looked over at Janeway. "Captain, you're bleeding."

Janeway tentatively licked her lip tasting both hers and Tegan's blood. "It's nothing. I'm more worried about the amount of blood you're losing."

Tegan looked down at the small puddle forming on the floor as the blood flowed down her leg and dripped off her toes. "It's nothing, just a few drops."

"Where did you learn to count?" Janeway shook her head. She knew Tegan was hard headed and used her own rules of relativity in such circumstances. She also knew the younger woman was trying to be brave. She just hoped she wasn't being brave for her.