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It was barely louder than a whisper, but in the long empty Jeffries tube it may as well have been deafening. James kept a close eye above him, the ladder to the next deck was blocked by an orange haze. He then crouched down to climb into the open tube nearby.

The Bridge:
As he expected the face on Damien was smug as soon as he waltsed on the bridge, he had even folded his arms for extra effect. Tom kept his comments to himself for now, he didn't have time.

"Our guest wants to know what you found out about the anomaly we were in last," he told him.

Damien laughed, his smug look managed to get even smugger. "Does he, well good for him."

"Come on, this guy is so much more intimating than you," Tom pretended to plead with him. Damien fell for it, his face fell. "I've never had to deal with such evil and genius."

Harry started smirking as Damien began fidgeting, his eyebrow looked ready to twitch itself to freedom. B'Elanna shook her head, resisting a smile for now.

"Since you're one of the good guys, you can't imagine the trauma I have in dealing with this... indescribable piece of scum," Tom said with a sad look on his face. It didn't look very convincing, he may as well have been slicing onions in plain sight to fake crying. It was still enough to make it believable to Damien though, he looked pretty mad at what he was saying. "We can't let him know how to deal with this anomaly, he'll get the Enterprise. It would be such a shame since without us, it'll never shake off that destroyer of worlds image everyone has of it now."

Damien's eyes started to narrow, his eyebrow was still twitching. "So... why am I here?"

"Tell me first, there has to be a way to stop this... dastardly fiend," Tom replied.

"I see. Why would I want to help you?" Damien asked.

"I always pay my loyal crew," Tom replied.

Damien chuckled to himself, "right. I'll need a lot more than that. Firstly, that Captain's Yacht of yours."

Tom frowned, "what Captain's Yacht? You mean the Enterprise's? I dunno, it looks like the ship has a hole in it when it's used and I planned on giving it a make over. It also has that four wheeler thing, I wanted to ride that bad boy."

Harry snickered to himself, "another joke we're keeping for later."

"Oh you don't know, then never mind," Damien laughed.

B'Elanna quickly tapped something on a padd, she raised it so Tom could just see it. Once again it had a schematic of Voyager, mostly focused on the saucer. A part of it seemed to separate from the ship. Tom's eyes widened.

"Holy crap, why didn't anybody tell me Voyager had one? We've had this ship for nearly twelve years," Tom stuttered, his eyes glazed over at the thought. He shook his head, "I'm so gonna race the Enterprise's. I mean no deal. However I'm sure we could accidentally deposit Annika with the aliens when we get rid of them."

"Hell we should do that anyway," Jessie commented.

Damien smiled, "throw in only to me access to Deck Thirteen's habitation lab, and a replicator that doesn't demand rations and you got yourself a blabber."

"I thought I already did," Tom remarked. "Just the replicator and Annika removal."

"Oh I don't know, you sounded desperate before," Damien smirked.

Tom sighed but a little over the top to be real, "fine!" He gestured for Damien to follow him into the Ready Room. He did while smirking away. Tom remained at the door once they were inside, while Damien stood in front of the desk.

"Okay, where should I start so your feeble mind can understand?" Damien muttered to himself.

"Why don't I?" Tom said. "The Bridge is bugged, Shoytin can hear everything we talk about there."

"Pretty stupid to call him scum and fiendish, hmm," Damien chuckled. "Not all villains appreciate an actual compliment."

"He told me to do everything I could to get you to co-operate," Tom said. "Now, why don't I explain why I really called you here."

Damien frowned, he turned around and was a little put off with the sly grin the Lieutenant had on his face. "What?"

"Right now somebody better than you... that doesn't narrow it down, is in the process of removing the aliens defences. Unfortunately until he does that we won't know if it's working or worse, giving the aliens an excuse to fire," Tom explained.

Damien yawned, "bored." He walked towards the door but Tom was directly in his path so he was forced to stop. "You're not going to pay me are you, all of that was a ruse. Why should I even listen to you?"

"Oh I'm going to pay you," Tom's smile didn't waver. "Remember that day you decided it would be a good idea to infect the kids with a virus?"

"You want me to do that again?" Damien smirked. Tom's smile disappeared immediately, his face froze. "That's one way of dealing with it. They won't expect that."

"Are you... why... oh why do I bother?" Tom stuttered. "No. Do you remember what happened when the virus actually worked on one particular kid, a one that hadn't been born yet?"

"Hmm, no," Damien sighed mockingly.

Tom felt his smirk returning to him, "I hear it ended with a certain mother making a bloody mess of your crew." Damien smiled as he remembered that one of the victims of this story was Wesley Crusher. Tom ignored that for now. "If anything, anything happens with that mother's three kids, even just a scratch, you'll have nowhere to escape this time."

Damien's smugness washed away, he looked a little pale in fact. "What? You don't have it in you Paris."

"I don't have to," Tom laughed. "Jessie's seven months pregnant and has three kids trapped with a psycho. If you thought her reaction to her unborn child's death was bad, oh boy."

Damien tried to cover his nervousness with one of his usual laughs, it didn't sound convincing in the slightest. "Why would she take it out on me?"

"Why not? Last time I checked Evil Witches don't really care who they kill. We'll just keep you two together, I was thinking of just tying you to her station or to her," Tom said.

"You're bluffing. She wouldn't let you do that," Damien tried to chuckle.

Tom shrugged casually, "my three kids are there too. I'll take that risk."

"You keep moving up on my list, Paris. I'd be careful if I were you," Damien growled. Tom shook his head while rolling his eyes. "Lets get this over with. I'll want to wash all of this good deed crap off me before it starts to stink."

"Good," Tom smiled again. "We'll start small and simple, like you." Damien made a mental note to bump him up his list again. "You know your way around our computers, I assume you can do it discreetly." He only got a nod. "We need to know how James is doing and what. Can you do that?"

Damien scoffed, "really? You can't find out what the blond bimbo is doing? All he's good for is hitting things and..." He pulled a disgusted face, "making little brats."

"Speaking of which, you're wasting time," Tom said, he moved to one side.

Damien stared at him coldly as he walked over towards him and the door.

Deck Eight:
The tension in the nursery was lighter as Shoytin and another alien remained in the office for the time being. Three of the aliens were still very uncomfortable with what they were doing, but without their leader around they had relaxed their weapons so they were no longer pointing at anyone. The pair still loyal to Shoytin kept their weapons raised while they watched Markal pace nearby, growing more impatient with every step.

"Would you remain still? You're giving me a headache," eventually one of them hissed.

Markal just changed his pacing direction to towards the pair. "We thought that when you supported the ship raid plan you had lost your mind, but this? These are children," he snapped at them.

The woman of the pair rolled her eyes in frustration. "Shoytin knows the Humans won't want to risk them, you have nothing to worry about."

"Do you really believe that our wonderful Captain would do nothing if they still tried?" Markal said.

"He has so far," the woman answered.

Jita shook her head timidly. "If I hadn't have lost that little girl, you wouldn't be saying that."

"He won't kill any of them," the man of the pair snapped. "Sometimes it is necessary for a leader to take risks like this. He's doing it for us."

"Well I'd prefer he didn't," Markal snapped back.

The woman shrugged, "perhaps you should take this up with him then." The man beside her smirked.

The protester scoffed, "you're as bad as he is. Shoytin doesn't care about us. You saw what he did to Jita, and has he shown any concern for our crew that were captured? No. What kind of leader does that?"

The man of the pair responded to this with a swipe of his weapon, it swung straight into his face, knocking him to the floor. Most of the kids cried or whimpered when he did. "Perhaps learn some respect!" the attacker snapped, he even raised his weapon to strike again.

"Hikgel! Don't you..." Rhone stuttered as he took a step forward.

"He's fine," the alien woman interrupted him, waving him off. Rhone and the others each looked down to the floor to see Markal covering his face. Some of them could clearly see blood seeping through the cracks in between his fingers. "You know what's at stake here. Shoytin knows the Humans won't help us willingly and we need what they have to survive. This is just to convince them. We're not here to kill anyone."

Jacqueline scoffed, "you already have."

"Yes, but you noticed that he didn't choose to shoot a child," Hikgel said in a warning tone of voice. "Her death was necessary to make the Humans believe that we are not bluffing, which we clearly are."

"Do you really believe that? Or do you just want to?" Jita asked.

Rhone shook his head, "either way, we're working with people who believe that a life is worth snuffing out if they're fully grown."

"Enough!" Hikgel snapped, he even pointed his weapon towards him and Jita. The pair didn't look too worried, especially as they were on the other side of the room to him. "One more traitorous comment and..." Something slammed into the back of his leg, it almost made his knee buckle. He swung around to see what it was, but he could see nothing. Everyone watching him had no idea why he turned around so suddenly, they each had a look of confusion and relief on their faces.

The woman sighed to calm herself down. "Nobody said that. We're in a desperate situation and we're all a little on edge. Maybe we should stop and cool down before we talk some more. At the very least trust that Shoytin knows what he's doing." She knelt down to help Markal back to his feet, once he was up he pulled away from her roughly. "What happened, we used to be a team..."

Nobody dared to answer her as long as Hikgel kept his weapon trained upwards to target anyone standing. He was about to walk by one of the tables when something hit his leg again, this time on the side. His head quickly turned just in time to see Miral hurrying away. She didn't notice that he had seen her and gave a tiny squeak as his hand flew out to grab her arm.

"It was you all along you little..." Hikgel growled.

Amy meanwhile peeped her head out from under the nearby table, her eyes were wide. The man was right in front of her and she could clearly see what he was doing.

Miral smiled, she was about to punish him one more time for touching her when he stumbled sideways onto the floor on his own. Luckily he had loosened his grip on her when he did. Most of the kids gasped at this, but one in particular just laughed with a proud look in his eyes.

"My leg, god!" Hikgel immediately cradled his right leg.

Miral looked around, a pout developed on her lips. Then she noticed Amy retreating back under the table. The pout disappeared quickly.

"That was awesome," Duncan continued sniggering but quietly. He stopped when a few of the people looked at him.

The woman walked over to help pull the fallen guy up to his feet. "What's the matter with you? Are you intoxicated?"

"Something hit me, and hard!" Hikgel snapped at her.

Miral giggled quietly as she sat down next to the table Amy was under. When no one was looking she put her hand out underneath it, hoping the other girl knew to high five it. Nothing happened though.

"Oh please, there was nothing there but air you fool," the woman groaned.

"Right!" Hikgel snarled. He was forced to use the wall as support as his leg struggled to hold any weight. "So no one saw the red haired girl, huh?"

All of the remaining aliens looked towards Miral, she quickly withdrew her hand and put on her cutest innocent face. Most of them melted at the sight of it. Now that he knew the truth, Hikgel was immune to it and it just made him angry.

"You're pathetic. She's only a baby," Rhone muttered.

"Hmph," Hikgel grunted, he stared towards Miral maliciously. She responded by doing a cute little wave back. Then to make the rest of the room hate him all the more she put her thumb in her mouth and widened her eyes further. "She's a little brat and she's not the only one. Someone else pushed me."

"So a baby pushed you and you fell over screaming," Duncan said. Bryan quickly tried to cover his mouth again, but this time Duncan was expecting it and he shuffled a little out of his reach. "I like how you guys are so honest."

Jita and Rhone laughed between themselves, Markal would have too if it didn't hurt to do so. The only one not amused was the other loyal to Shoytin alien.

"You little..." Hikgel growled. The woman put a hand on his arm and looked at him sternly. It seemed to calm him down in an instant, almost like he was afraid of her.

"Stop making a fool out of yourself Hik," she said quietly but dangerously.

"Yeah Hik," Duncan teased him.

Hikgel only growled back, he turned away to avoid getting angrier. The woman shook her head in disgust.

The Bridge:
Tom hurried out of the Ready Room, he immediately noticed Harry gesturing him over to the back stations where he and Damien were. "What?" he only mouthed as he approached them.

Harry pointed at the panel Damien was looking at. Tom looked but to him it appeared to be a garbled mess. Damien noticed his confused face and rolled his eyes. His fingers quickly tapped the station, the screen nearby started to show text for Tom to read.

"The forcefield generators they've installed are drawing power..." was all it said. Tom glanced towards Damien just as he shrugged and pulled a nonchalant face. Before he could say anything he tapped something else, more text appeared. "Sorry, forgot you were all idiots. I'll explain so you understand. If Layer messes with one more system, he's gonna get an explosion in his face."

Tom's head titled to one side, his eyebrow went up. "Layer?" he mouthed. "Typo?" Damien shook his head. Tom tried his best not to smirk, but it didn't work. Then his eyes widened in horror, "explosion?"

Damien shrugged casually again. Tom's eyes returned to normal just so he could scowl and then point at Jessie behind him. Damien rolled his eyes. "Fine," he mimed.

The panel was hot to the touch, James could see it starting to smoke as well. He tried to work quicker. The tricorder in his left hand seemed to be screeching at him. His right finger tips were already red from the heat, but they kept tapping. It beeped once he was finished. "Good..." he mumbled to himself as the right hand reached inside the open panel to reconnect two wires. The tricorder calmed down for the time being.

James looked at it, then back up at the panel. Quickly he picked up the nearby cover, put it back where it was and crawled a little further down the Jeffries tube to another one. The tricorder screeched again, forcing him to crawl backwards. Just in time as the panel in front of him had smoke already billowing out of it.

"Damn it, no..." he grumbled to himself as he opened the previous panel again. Leaving the tricorder on the ground, both hands went into the wiring this time. As he worked at it the nearby panel looked like it started to cool off. He was beginning to do the opposite, his left hand almost slammed into the nearby wall but he held it back for now. Instead he put the cover back angrily.

He felt he had no choice but to crawl back the way he came.

Damien snickered quietly to himself, but stopped when Tom slapped the back of his head. He glared at the ex-helmsman before getting back to work.

Some text appeared on the screen. "I think the idiot's spotted the overload, but all he can do is re-route it." Damien pulled a face. The re-route it bit was replaced by move it. The overload part then was changed to exploding thing.

Tom bit his lip to hold his temper for now. He gestured Harry to come with him as he walked over to Jessie at Tactical. "Jess, if he so much as smirks..." he whispered.

"Got it," Jessie whispered back. She rushed over to take Tom and Harry's place, Damien's smirks were a thing of the past.

The pair quickly stepped into the Ready Room. "Overload?"

Harry sighed, "somehow he was spotted trying to mess with the systems they have."

"I got that part," Tom stuttered.

Harry smiled meekly, "I don't know what but the last connection he was trying to sever triggered one of their forcefield generators to overload. As Damien says it looks like James noticed it and tried to cut that off at the source."

Tom was getting more and more anxious by the second, he was shaking. "Harry stop, forget about explosions or overloads. They know he's trying to thwart them, you know what that means."

Harry's face turned extremely pale so quickly he nearly passed out, or at least he felt like it. "Oh. Ohno, it's okay..." Tom's head shook while his eyes widened. "From what Damien says the overload was triggered by something he did. I think it's automatic."

"So a booby trap then," Tom said. He shuddered as his brain made him remember Annika's Milkshake dance. "Stupid brain." He noticed Harry was looking disgusted. "You too, huh?"

Harry nodded, "yeah to both. I imagine they'll notice when it does explode. The overload's already in progress, all that can be done now is move it. I'm sure from what I saw that's what he's doing. I hinted to Damien to cut off the ones that the aliens would notice."

James arrived at the end of the Jeffries tube, the doors opened for him immediately. He didn't climb out right away as he was greeted by sparks flying around the junction and smoke billowing out of a nearby panel.

Just as he rushed over to the panel to open it, the forcefield above him disappeared for a few seconds, which he didn't see. He quickly began to work at this panel like he did the others. The forcefield stuttered as it reappeared a lot lower than it was before. The buzz it generated made him look up and see that it was only a foot away from his head. Again it flickered out of existence for a moment. His attention darted to the panel again, then the tricorder which continued its warning squeals. He tried to work a lot quicker but it made him almost disconnect the wrong wires and tap the wrong command in.

He was out of time. The last thing he did was turn his head towards the entrance to the Jeffries tube.

Deck Eight:
Shoytin watched as the woman he was with's face turned very pale, while watching the tricorder like device in her hand. When she started to shake he walked over to snatch it off her.

"Don't worry, I won't make you do it," he said to her with a smile.

The woman stared after him as he walked out of the office. Every member of his crew looked towards him as he entered the nursery. He eyed Markal and his newly broken nose with contempt, then turned his attention towards Hikgel and his other loyal crewmember. Without a word he tossed the tricorder device towards her, she caught it. One look at it told her what she needed to know.

"Rhone, come with me," she barked.

With Shoytin in the room, he didn't dare argue with her. Rhone quickly followed her through the main door.

"Sir, may I ask what's happening?" Hikgel said carefully.

Shoytin smiled in such a way even Hikgel was getting worried about what was going to happen next. "I wouldn't worry about it. Our upcoming guest will have the honours."

The Bridge:
B'Elanna glanced behind her at Opps' back station, "Tom, explosion on Deck Eight."

Tom quickly ran over to her, glancing at Damien on route. "What happened?"

Damien laughed nervously as he could feel Jessie glaring at him. "Funny story..." His ear was grabbed and then pulled hard, he tried his best not to squeal.

B'Elanna pointed towards the ship schematic she had on her screen. "I'm not sure," she lied. "It looks like one of the forcefields they put up overloaded."

Tom's was starting to drown in his own sweat, he desperately tried to wipe the stuff off his forehead and cheeks at least. He wasn't quite sure what to say or ask outloud.

"Was there anyone there?" Jessie asked, but she knew the answer already. She walked over to opps, dragging Damien by the ear behind her. "What do we do?" she mouthed in B'Elanna's direction.

"Mind if I weigh in here?" Damien grumbled, raising his hand. Jessie shook him roughly to shut him up.

Tom stared vacantly down at the floor. "There's nothing we can do. Their forcefield overloaded probably due to incompatibility with our systems. It's nothing we've done, I'm just worried that they'll still blame us..." He could feel both B'Elanna and Jessie stare at him, he didn't want to look to make sure.

"But..." Jessie stuttered.

B'Elanna bit her lip briefly before she spoke. "Nobody's there, it was a malfunction," she said to her. "Okay?"

Jessie stared at her helplessly, however the anger was still brewing. "No, no it's not okay. They'll think... they might..." she tried desperately to think of a way to explain without making it worse. "What if they detect the explosion and automatically assume we're about to charge in to rescue the kids? They could just..."

Damien used that moment to pull himself out of Jessie's grip. "Did I mention we don't have to pretend they're listening anymore?" Everyone turned their heads slowly to glare at him. "You're welcome, sheesh."

Deck Eight:
The woman from the office had returned to the nursery, she stood near Jita. Her body was still shaking terribly. "I thought it was a problem with the forcefield generators. Why did I look into it further?"

Jita looked on in sympathy, her hand went up to the other woman's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Yana. If you didn't report it and Shoytin found out, he would have..."

"So? I don't want to hurt anyone," the woman whispered. Shoytin looked across at them both, he pointed a bit further to their left. Jita took that as a hint to separate or else, so she quickly side stepped to one side.

Meanwhile Miral was taking advantage of the aliens being distracted to peep her head under the table Amy was hiding under. "Teach me to push that hard. So funny. Please."

Amy's eyes were so wide they started to water, she timidly shook her head. "Can't."

Miral pouted, "why?"

The doors to the nursery opened. "Ohno," Yana stuttered. Rhone and the unnamed girl re-entered, dragging somebody in with them. As soon as he was dumped onto the floor, everybody who were watching noticed the burns covering his face and left arm.

Sasha however recognised him even with the burns and she gasped. "Daddy!"

Duncan looked up in shock, then turned his head towards the door and saw for himself. He quickly looked back to his sister, but he wasn't the only one. Shoytin smiled, he waltsed right over to where she sat. She trembled as he knelt down in front of her.

Shoytin just laughed as he reached forward to pick up Sasha. "You know, I thought we'd have to wait for him to wake up. Now we don't have to." He rose to his feet, taking her with him. The rest of his crew froze on the spot as he made sure to make eye contact with them all, with a devilish smirk on his face. "Our guest chose a kid for us anyway."

"Son of a..." Duncan grumbled. He quickly got to his feet but Bryan grabbed him to try and pull him down. Jita, being the closest, rushed forward to also stop him. "Leave her alone!"

Shoytin just rolled his eyes. "Bring our new guest into the office." He was too busy walking to the office to notice everyone's hesitation. Once he was gone the unnamed woman and Hikgel were the first to move, to no one's surprise they did as they were told.

"No," Duncan muttered as he pulled himself out of both grips on him. He rushed forward after Shoytin, the rest of the aliens quickly dashed forward to block and or grab a hold of him.

While that was happening Amy peeped her head out from under the table, Miral put her arm out to stop her. It didn't, she just attempted to crawl around her. "Sowwy," Miral whispered to her. All it took was a gentle push to make the older girl fall and roll onto her side, just so she'd be hidden by the table again. Amy started to whimper as she landed.

"Get off me, no!" Duncan yelled as all of the remaining aliens kept a hold of him.

Shoytin shook his head as his two loyal crewmembers dropped their new prisoner onto the floor. "There's always one kid fancying himself a hero, huh? Maybe I should leave him to last," he snickered.

The two stared at each other with the same worried look on their faces, they turned to face their leader and gave him a fake smile and laugh.

"Don't look at me like that," Shoytin said to Sasha, much to the other two's relief not them. She was blinking away tears and pouting, but with her head turned to try and hide it from him. "Daddy's the one that's gonna kill you, not me."

"What sir?" Hikgel stuttered, fear started to get to him.

Shoytin didn't even have to look at him to show his irritation, he only had to grunt. "Not literally. I'm not a monster." He smiled again when Sasha tried to reach for her unconscious father on the floor. "I'm not the one who risked his daughter's life trying to stupidly rescue her. Hmm?"

"Sir, are we really going to do this?" the woman asked carefully. Shoytin shot her a glare which made her wince and her shoulders slump.

"Maybe um..." Hikgel stammered, he looked to the floor to avoid the same glare. "Maybe we can talk to Paris, negotiate the release. They're clearly desperate if they're willing to do this. They wouldn't risk their kids if they had the information we needed."

"No," Shoytin scoffed. "Paris knows, he just won't admit it. What he doesn't know is if his reckless plan has killed anyone yet. For now, lets just let him wonder."

The Bridge:
Chakotay watched Tom pace backwards and forwards in front of him as he sat in his old chair. Every now and then they'd both hear a bang from the back, neither of them really cared to look, they knew what it was.

"Shoytin didn't call, that is strange," Chakotay said.

Tom stopped for a second to whimper, then got back to pacing.

"Maybe I'm being optimistic, but that sounds like a good thing," Harry commented. "He must have thought it was an accident and that's why he hasn't threatened us."

"Or he's having a kid killing part..." Damien piped up, his head was slammed face down into the back station. Jessie grabbed his hair to pull him back again. "You're just mad cos either way, hubby's a bit singed." It happened again, making everyone watching wondering how a so called genius would be stupid enough to keep annoying her.

"You did say you cut off his eavesdropping," Chakotay pointed out.

Jessie looked a little bored after one more console slam, she settled for tossing him to the right instead. Damien tumbled the floor. "He's right, that might have tipped him off if he suddenly couldn't hear us anymore," she said.

Damien laughed as he struggled to lift himself up. "You guys were a mime act for ten minutes, what difference did it make?" Jessie shrugged, then kicked him in the leg to force him back to the floor. "Jeez, this is what I get for trying to help..."

Tom stopped pacing to face Chakotay and the back of the Bridge. "When you cut him off, we lost communications with him. If our kids die because..."

"Because James wouldn't give himself up to the aliens to save his kids, but would rather endanger their lives by pissing the aliens off, then..." Damien said as he climbed to his feet, glancing briefly at Jessie. Once he was sure her eyes were their normal colour he dared to continue, "good riddance to him."

He was surprised when Jessie didn't attack him for any of that, the rest of the Bridge's silence surprised him though. He rolled his eyes, "great, now he's considered more evil than me. That's just great."

Chakotay stared up at Tom, the latter was back to sweating a lot. "I hope you have another plan, just..."

"I do, sort of," Tom winced.

"I didn't just cut them off anyway, the moron's eavesdropping on a looped recording," Damien grumbled. He grew annoyed with himself. "Wait, why do I care again?" Jessie stamped on his foot. "Oh right," he squeaked whilst hopping on his good foot.

Chakotay sighed, "so what is it?"

"Well it's better than your plan," Tom said defensively. Chakotay frowned at him. "Well it is, and you really shouldn't be in that seat. Also we don't need any grave robbing today, so you can go home now."

"What did you say?" Chakotay said whilst pulling himself up to his feet. Tom backed off a metre or two.

"Um insulting things that would make you go," he stuttered.

The turbolift door opened, Kiara stepped out but stopped immediately when she saw Chakotay. Tom was already feeling uncomfortable and nervous but he still winced when Chakotay turned his head to look at her.

"Okay, so you ready?" he stammered.

"Sure," Kiara said, averting her eyes away from her grandfather.

Tom sighed in relief, "great, I just have one small detail I'd like to amend."

"What?" Kiara asked.

Tom's eyes drifted over towards Damien who was busy muttering to himself. He was also leaning on the barrier behind the command chairs, only standing on his good foot. Kiara looked over as well. She was about to object when Jessie shrugged and stamped on his other foot, causing him to fall to floor while still clinging onto the bar.

"Why?" Kiara sighed.

"Someone should go with you, he's the only one I want to risk," Tom answered. Chakotay coughed mockingly. "Well there's another but he's the lesser of two evils."

Damien gasped in horror from the floor, "how dare you!" Jessie groaned, she gave him a quick kick in the stomach to stop him from complaining.

"I don't know, it looks like Jessie needs him more than I do," Kiara said with a meek smile.

"Why you taking it out on me, it was your freak that killed your kids, not me," Damien complained anyway.

"Uhoh," everyone said.

"Which Evil Jessie do you think we're going to get? Skin removal or man removal?" Chakotay said with a smirk.

Jessie smiled sweetly. Damien's eyes widened, he quickly scrambled away before she could do anything... yet. He stood behind Kiara. She didn't look that thrilled about it. "So, what are we waiting for Lena Junior? Lets save the day."

"Ugh, coward," Kiara groaned. She clicked her fingers, the two disappeared in a flash.

Jessie scowled in Chakotay's direction. "For your information I'm leaning more towards pain in the ass removal."

"You didn't understand what I meant by man removal, did you?" Chakotay said.

Jessie's anger fizzled away, she just looked confused. "Yeah, I was confused about that cos Damien's no man."

Tom sighed in relief, "ookay, so that's phase one of the plan underway. Time for phase two."

"Which is?" B'Elanna questioned.

Tom hurried over to where she was. "James risked an explosion in the face and um..." he looked over to catch Jessie narrowing her eyes at him. "Probably escaped unharmed from one, without anyone knowing he was there..."

"Tom," B'Elanna warned him he was only making it worse.

"Fine, I tried," Tom pouted. "It wasn't my plan." Chakotay rolled his eyes. "The whole point was to get some of our control back. Hopefully we can use it before the aliens figure out what we've got back."

"Great, as usual we're half assing it. Nope, not even quarter," Chakotay commented.

Tom slammed both of his hands down on the station, it startled everyone. "We haven't got time for this! If James was caught we could be already too late." He quickly checked to see how far away Jessie was from him before continuing. "We've got a three out of fifteen chance that Shoytin may pick one of his kids, and then what."

"We'll have a repeat of the Mess Hall demons incident, I know," Chakotay groaned. Jessie stared him down with an expression which topped any of Janeway's old death glares. He tried to wave it off but she was also walking towards him. "Relax, I was just trying to scare Tom."

"I'm already scared," Tom admitted. He turned to B'Elanna, she gave him a soft smile. "So what we got?"

"Well the good news is the overload started when he disconnected most of the forcefield network," B'Elanna answered.

Harry winced as he moved away from Tactical. "What's the bad news?"

"Apart from the overload's resulting explosion drawing attention to it?" Nathan said quietly. He didn't notice that Jessie was standing not far from him, she gave him a light slap across the head. "Hey."

"I still can't use transporters or scan for lifesigns," B'Elanna replied.

Tom's shoulders fell, his hands leaned on the station. "So... a few forcefields are down and they probably know about it. No offense but I expected better of James." He spotted a glance between Chakotay and Jessie in the corner of his eye, he looked up as dread started to sink in. "Please, please tell me he didn't get caught on purpose guys."

"Shoytin threatened to pull the trigger on a kid if we dared to try anything. The last communication we heard, he wanted to kill Amy first," Jessie said while trying desperately to keep her temper. "What do you think?"

Tom desperately looked at B'Elanna, she looked concerned as well. "I don't know. I really, really hope not. There was always a chance their hacker would figure out what he was doing, that's a huge gamble."

"Chakotay?" B'Elanna almost growled.

Chakotay didn't dare look her way. "Don't look at me, he was going to go and hack his way inside. I only suggested that he target one system and return."

"That's not a plan, that's barely an edit," Tom complained, his hand covered his face. "Okay, forcefields are down. Where?" B'Elanna looked at him in surprise. "If Kiara can't do anything it's all we got left."

"It's about time."

For a few seconds his sight was blurred, then the burning pain kicked in. Even just opening his eyes stung. All of that was forgotten when his vision cleared up and James could see Shoytin sitting in a seat in front of him. Sasha squirmed in his arms, tears streaming down her face. He lunged forward but a hand grabbed his shoulder and something metallic was shoved roughly into his cheek. A brief glance to the right and he saw it was one of the aliens' phaser rifles.

"You shouldn't make your daughter wait," Shoytin taunted him. James was about to move forward anyway until he noticed the small Federation phaser in the man's hand. "It was awfully foolish of you to try to disable the forcefields. Did you not think we would see it?"

"You really don't want to do that," he said.

Shoytin glanced down at Sasha, she turned her head away and whimpered. "Do what?" He laughed quietly as he climbed to his feet. "I didn't do anything. You forced my hand. If my daughter was here, I would co-operate. I'd do anything to bring her home safely."

"As if you could have children," James muttered.

Shoytin's smile faded, his features darkened. "Meaning what?"

"I thought it was pretty obvious," James didn't answer.

Shoytin clenched his jaw, he took one step closer and then knelt down in front of him. "Are you stupid? I could kill her in an instant." Sasha squeaked, she tried to reach for her dad again but they still weren't close enough.

"I will kill you," James warned him.

Shoytin chuckled, he straightened back up. "That's a yes. I'll give you one more chance..." Hikgel and the woman seemed very relieved, the woman showed it with a sigh. "Tell me how Voyager survived the cloud anomaly."

James slowly looked up to look him in the eye. "What do you know about it?" he eventually answered.

Shoytin growled, his phaser hand raised. "Stop playing games!"

"That's exactly what we're doing," James snapped back. "But you know that already, am I wrong?"

"Yes I know about the Game Sphere and all of its trickery. I don't want to hear about what I already know, so..." Shoytin said.

"The anomaly tricks people into staying inside and drains all the power it can until they're destroyed. A sphere like the one we're in does the same thing," James said.

"You're toying with her life, don't you know," Shoytin growled.

James shook his head, "no, you're just killing yourself. They both have a weakness, something immune to its tricks."

Shoytin sat back down in the nearby seat without breaking eye contact. "I know that as well. Tell me what it is."

"Me," James replied.

There was a bright flash of light, it quickly faded to reveal Kiara and Damien. They both looked around, Kiara sighed in relief when she saw a tractor-beamed Voyager on a nearby screen.

"This looks like the ship, finally," she said.

Damien shuddered, "I could have done without the trip to Neelix's kitchen. I've been through enough torture."

"Worth it," Kiara smirked. Damien glared at her. "Now, where should we start?"

"Whatever we do, we have to make sure they don't know it until it's too late," Damien said, rolling his eyes. Kiara directed a frown at him. "Ugh, there's not enough yoghurts in the universe for this."

"Just pretend the aliens are goody two shoes and Voyager is yours. They want it back into good hands," Kiara suggested.

Damien pulled a face as he thought about it, he ended up with a smile. "I dunno, what if I like this ship better?"

"Have both," Kiara answered quickly.

"I like your thinking," Damien sneered. He walked over to the nearest console as casually as he could. "That witch can't get me here. I don't need to be sneaky."

"Probably not. I assume she tried to transport over to your ship when she was evil, and failed horribly," Kiara said with a smile.

Damien thought about it, "oh. I forgot she can be competent whilst evil." He smirked at the young girl. "A lesson for us all."

"Fine, prove your lesson. Why don't we try to beam the aliens back first?" Kiara suggested while walking over to him.

"We don't even know if these sensors can get through, Voyager's internal ones were blocked. Hence the lack of lifesign readings," Damien laughed.

Kiara ignored him for now, "okay, fine. What about doing that first, they won't notice."

"Why don't you let the genius work here. You're just the driver," Damien said, waving her away. She stared at him intensely for a minute while he worked. When he stopped to think about something she gave him a hard slap. "Hey, I'm helping here. Don't I get credit for that?"

"That was for what you did to Lena," Kiara grumbled.

"Oh," Damien laughed. "I already told you, it was a mistake."

"So why didn't you say so?" Kiara stuttered in disbelief. She then shook her head, silently berating herself. "Forgot I was talking to a moron."

Damien shrugged, "I gotta get my kicks somewhere."

Kiara's face went blank. That didn't last long, it scrunched in disgust. "Eeew."

"Hey I'm not the bad guy in this one," Damien said sadly. "Why don't you slap around Craig or smother the watcher guy with a pillow. It's fun."

Kiara's eyes narrowed, "which is?"

"I imagine both," Damien sniggered. He got back to work, still laughing away to himself.

"Why... why would you want to do that?" Kiara asked quietly. Damien's head turned her way, she saw that same old mischievous smile but his eyes didn't match. She swore she saw a little anger in there, it took her by surprise. "Oh my god. Did you like Ylara?"

"No," Damien laughed bitterly. "That bitch did nothing but belittle me and smack me around. Did you know she once forced me to clean her bathroom?"

Kiara looked disgusted again, Damien stared blankly as he didn't know why. "Each to his own," she muttered. He still wasn't sure what she was reacting to, he just shrugged and turned back to the console. "I know you'll only find this hilarious, but you must know that you may have broken her. It wasn't her that killed Ylara. Lena, she didn't deserve your bile."

"I told you," Damien muttered angrily. Again Kiara was surprised. "It... was... a... mistake. I thought she was Ylara."

"Still, you were going on about revenge like she was your friend," Kiara said. "My mistake, I thought I was talking to the almighty and evil Damien." She shook her head and walked away.

"Hmph," Damien huffed, he decided to ignore her and concentrate only on his work.

Voyager, Deck Eight:
"You expect me to believe this?" Shoytin said, a smug smile formed on his face.

"I can prove it," James sighed in annoyance.

Shoytin shook his head, "yes I'm sure. I imagine I'd have to let people go to prove it."

"No, it's all in our databases," James said. Shoytin scoffed. "I suppose it would be quicker to prove it on you."

"I see. So you intimidate me into letting you use the computers. You take me for a fool?" Shoytin snarled.

"Yeah but not for that reason," James answered.

Shoytin raised the phaser again, angering James further by pointing it into Sasha's arm. "This is bordering on child abuse."

"I told you what you want to know. You even have what you need to survive the anomaly," James said. "There's no..."

"How convenient!" Shoytin snapped. "You know what I see? Paris sends one of his lackeys to disable the forcefields, but just in case it fails he gives the minion a backup deception..."

"Paris had nothing to do with this, I never listen to him!" James snapped over the top of him.

Shoytin continued anyway, "if you're captured, pretend to be this mystical Slayer thing and if he doesn't believe you, give him the proof he needs. We'll do the rest. How stupid do you think I am?"

Sasha struggled against him. "Stop it," she cried.

"See, even your own daughter thinks it's insane," Shoytin growled.

James shook his head, "I don't have to prove it with a computer. You don't have to compromise anything..."

"Really, so explain to me how one person defends the entire ship's navigation systems from tampering," Shoytin said.

"I was the one that locked out the helm control. I had to stop one member of the crew trying to eject the warp core..." James explained.

"Sounds very simple," Shoytin mockingly said. "Sounds nice and clean. Very believable. If you were this super hero, how are you here?"

James rolled his eyes, he laughed bitterly. "I'm no hero, and I'm definitely not super either. Who says that?"

"Daddy," Sasha whimpered.

"But I am what you need to get into that anomaly. Look through the database on your own, I'm sure your hacker will easily manage to get in," James said. "In case you need further proof..." His hand grabbed a hold of the rifle sticking in his face. Shoytin noticed it starting to bend downwards when the two aliens panicked, the one not carrying the rifle swung her own into James' face. Unlike Markal the blow didn't knock him to the floor, it only dazed him. The two aliens shared a panic stricken glance, this time they both struck him over and over.

"No, leave him alone!" Sasha sobbed.

Shoytin sighed, he turned his chair back on what was happening, blocking her view of it. "I'm no monster..." he whispered to her. "But daddy did blab too soon, would you believe him?" His head turned back slightly, "enough, I need him conscious!"

The aliens froze on the spot, only their eyes moved to keep watch of James struggling to sit back up again.

Shoytin climbed up to his feet, and placed Sasha into the seat instead of him. He slowly walked around it to stand in front of James.

"Maybe... maybe he's not lying," Hikgel stuttered. "Look at him, one hit almost knocked Markal out."

The woman scowled at him, "it's a bit late to be having second thoughts now."

"You panicked first," Hikgel snapped back.

"Enough," Shoytin said calmly but there was a dangerous tint to his voice. The two aliens knew to shut up. He snatched the rifle that James had grabbed earlier to inspect the damage to it. The two aliens noticed the slight bend and they grew even more nervous. "Do not concern yourselves. Humans could be stronger than we are and he could have been trying to break free, not prove a point." He turned to Hikgel, "watch the girl."

Hikgel nodded, he hurried over to stand on the other side of the chair. The sight of her still sobbing, her face drenched with tears, made him feel awful. He hated it, so he mentally tried to slap himself out of it. Instead he just grew angry at himself and her.

"Do we have anything we can tie him up with?" Shoytin asked.

The woman nodded, "yes sir." She hurried back into the nursery.

"Well then, lets see what truth comes out when there's a little pain," Shoytin said quietly as he knelt down.

"Hmm, this must be the sensors," Damien said to himself outloud. He pressed one button and the lights went off. "Maybe not." One more push brought them back on. His face lit up as well. "Ah of course, ranan must mean the same thing in their stupid language. Lights on, illuminate what you can't see, ie the sensors. I'm way too clever for this crap."

Kiara didn't look impressed, she just looked bored. "Sure, like reading was the same word as cup holder."

"Ah cleverness went right over your head, no surprise," Damien laughed. He pressed a few more buttons and waited. Nothing happened this time though. "Oh, why didn't it..."

"You're not as smart as you think you are," Kiara muttered in response.

Damien pretended to consider that, he then laughed quite loudly. "Good one. Maybe it still needs a little power." He pressed yet another button. The screen showing Voyager nearby slowly got covered up by a black metal screen moving down. "That's almost as useless as the Enterprise's viewscreen being holographic."

"Here I was expecting another warp core shield joke, which has gotten very old," Kiara sighed.

Damien giggled, "oh boy, that was a good one. Almost as good as my Jeffries tube slide on the so called Deck Twenty Nine. Or what I like to call the bottomless pit. Good times, puts Deck Thirteen to shame."

Kiara's face scrunched up in confusion, she wasn't quite sure what to say to that besides, "huh?"

Damien glanced over his shoulder to look at her, "seriously, watch Nemesis."

"Right, can you use the alien's computers or not?" Kiara asked impatiently.

"Of course! I just have to lower myself to the average Joe's level to understand their ludicrous console designs," Damien answered.

"Yeah that's the problem," Kiara commented. Assuming she was agreeing with him, Damien smirked and returned to work. She groaned as one more button push made the cup holder in the centre seat disappear into the arm. "There's gotta be something I can do," she whispered to herself. Without realising it she started to pace in a circle around the alien bridge. "Aliens have kids, they will shoot if we try something that they can see. We can't beam them out, we can't charge in even if there were no forcefields, what they want we can't give them. Also their ship is pretty much useless here." It suddenly came to her, not one but two things she could do. "I got it!"

"I doubt that," Damien mumbled.

"I think it's minor enough, all I have to do is tell Voyager that..." Kiara said. A flash of light enveloped her, cutting her right off. A second later she was gone.

"Hmm, maybe..." Damien said quietly. His finger pressed one more button. The tiny screen next to it activated, his face lit up. "Ah ha, that's the one."

Voyager's Bridge:
B'Elanna and Harry were attempting to share Opps but they kept clashing everytime they each tried to do something. Harry tried to reach over to the part she was working on, his hand got slapped for his trouble.

"I'm using that," she snapped.

"Ouch okay, I'm gonna forgive that cos of your situation," Harry pouted.

"Yay," B'Elanna said sarcastically. "I assume cos you keep hogging my side that you haven't found anything that can help."

"No, nothing," Harry shook his head. "They haven't yet rebooted the shield, but other than that there's no change."

B'Elanna smacked the station, it even bleeped as if it was complaining about it. "Chakotay, next time you decide to give James some advice, make it useful."

Chakotay didn't dare say anything, he kept his gaze straight ahead towards the helm. In the corner of his eye he saw Tom's head turned towards him from the other chair. "What?"

"If you told James that he dropped something or a lace was loose, he'd just keep walking. How the hell did you convince him to change the rescue his own kids plan?" Tom asked.

Chakotay turned his head, he immediately saw the suspicion in his eyes. "I didn't order him, if that's what you mean."

"It's not," Tom stated.

"I don't know what to tell you. I suggested the forcefields should be his main focus. I'm as surprised as you that he listened," Chakotay said.

"So it wasn't really your plan, it was his," Tom groaned into his hand.

"Does it matter? It clearly didn't work!" B'Elanna snapped at them both.

Harry winced not just because of that, but the station beeped at them at the same time. "Comm link to Deck Eight has been activated, but he still can't hear us."

"Answer at once," Shoytin's voice said coldly.

Tom gave Harry a wave as he stood up from his seat. Both Harry and B'Elanna went to tap the same command.

"Paris here," Tom managed to say although his teeth were threatening to chatter. His whole body was starting to tremble as he feared the worst.

"Nice try."

Tom felt a lump grow in his throat, he tried desperately to swallow it while looking around at everyone. He was very thankful that Jessie was nowhere to be seen.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You know what I mean. I do like your creativity, not many people would come up with a ridiculous story like this to cover your tracks."

"What?" Tom frowned, he was definitely confused. "I really have no idea what you're talking about."

B'Elanna and a few other's eyes widened as they just managed to hear Sasha's now much quieter crying. They didn't hear it for long, "you managed to escape the anomaly because of one super powered freak, who just happens to know how to hack, as well as keep an eye on a whole ship. I've read more realistic children's books."

"Where are you getting this?" Tom asked carefully.

"I have him right here. It didn't take much to get him to talk," Shoytin answered. "Usually I have to do the torture first, not the other way around."

"I don't... who and what are you talking about?" Tom stuttered.

Shoytin groaned impatiently, "you sent your hacker to disable our shields, he's right here. Do not pretend it didn't happen, it's a waste of both our time."

"Hacker? Oh god," Tom pretended to sound annoyed. "I told him not to try anything."

"Oh, is that how we're playing it? All right. Let me catch you up then," Shoytin said.

Harry cringed, "someone's trying to activate the viewscreen."

Tom quickly nodded at him. B'Elanna tapped the station while he did so. The viewscreen then activated to show the inside of the nursery office. Shoytin blocked most of the view of it, not for long though. The image span around, once it stopped everyone could see Sasha sitting in the chair, trying desperately to dry her eyes but with no success. Behind her was James lying still on the floor, with a few extra bruises on top of his burn wounds.

Shoytin let that image stick for a bit before the image span round to show him again. He knelt down so they could see his face. "She's got five minutes." The whole Bridge froze, Tom could feel the nervous sweat coming back. "Give me the truth, prove it or I'll wake him up and make him watch."

Tom felt himself laughing but he had no idea why. "Trust me, you do not want to do that."

Shoytin smiled, "why not? I've been very lenient so far. She should have been dead as soon as he was brought in."

"It'll be the last thing you ever do," Chakotay warned, his lip threatened to curl into a smirk.

"Four minutes," Shoytin muttered.

Tom didn't know he could panic anymore than he had done so far, but he was managing it. "Look, look... the guy you've captured has a really, I mean really violent temper. He's killed people. You kill his daughter, well... even I don't know how far he'll go. Please, just..."

"Should I be afraid, really? Is he really this Slayer, or is this just a way to control me?" Shoytin said.

Chakotay shook his head, "you'll find out soon enough."

"Chakotay, really?" Tom whispered back at him. He noticed the Commander's face looked deadly serious, he didn't know what to make of that. Tom's attention quickly went back to the viewscreen. "If he's told you who he is, then surely he told you that he's the reason we survived the anomaly." Shoytin only scoffed in response. "How are we supposed to do this if you don't believe anything we say?"

"See it from my side. Would you believe it?" Shoytin answered.

"Okay, let me explain something to you. Imagine we're telling the truth," Tom said as he slowly approached the viewscreen. "Your timer runs out, you wake up the Slayer and you kill his daughter in front of him. I'm right and he loses it; he'll kill you, your crew without breaking a sweat. You won't even be able to shoot him, he'll just finish the job, while your people might try to kill off some kids in the panic. Pretty big gamble for both of us right?"

"I'm okay with the killing the crew part," Chakotay muttered to himself.

Tom ignored him for the time being, "if you decide to believe me, you'll get what you came here for. On the other hand if I'm lying and you believe me, it'll get us both quite literally nowhere. I have nothing to gain from this. If you don't and you kill her, well nobody wins there either. It's your choice."

He was relieved when it appeared like Shoytin was thinking about it. B'Elanna shook her head, she didn't see it ending that easily.

"You do realise that in your believe it scenario, I take your Slayer and you'll never get it back," Shoytin pointed out.

"This is why I didn't want you to know about him. I don't give up members of my crew, it's not our way," Tom said. "However if he told you so freely, he would be willing to exchange the kids for himself. I would if I could."

"That's the thing," Shoytin smiled.

"Here we go," B'Elanna muttered.

"I have no guarantee, no safety net that he'll co-operate with me, Slayer or not. I imagine he's only taking the hits because..." Shoytin said. Again the screen span to focus on Sasha, this time she seemed to notice it. Her eyes lit up a little.

"It's okay, we'll get you out of there," Tom said softly.

Sasha's bottom lip was trembling, her eyes threatened to burst into tears again. "Mummy..." Tom turned around towards the back of the bridge, sure enough Jessie was just leaving a turbolift carrying a few books. She dropped them on the floor when she saw her. "I'm sorry."

Shoytin laughed as most of the bridge cringed and wished it was all a bad dream. "Oh, is that where you got your looks, sweet annoying thing?" he taunted just before entering the screen by foot. He picked Sasha up, making the already tense atmosphere on the bridge even more suffocating. "I was wondering."

"You son of a..." Jessie grumbled.

"Jess," Tom continued to cringe. It didn't matter, Jessie was already at the front of the bridge, with only Nathan and the helm getting in her way.

"Put her down or I'll personally go down there and rip your fingers off!" she snapped.

"Oh," Shoytin sniggered. "Mummy's feisty, I like her."

Tom quickly dared to walk over to Jessie's side, he didn't dare touch her though. "Remember the bit about the killing your crew. I dunno how I forgot to mention this but..." he gestured his thumb in her direction.

"I see, so she's one of these Slayers too?" Shoytin chuckled. "Does it run in the family now?"

"No but you're one of the dead men," Jessie growled.

Shoytin pretended to look shocked, "you know, it's been more than five minutes. I'll leave it up to you if you want to watch as well. I know you managed to get that control back at least." The screen went off quickly. Tom looked around to Opps.

"I panicked," Harry stuttered.

"Five minutes to what?" Jessie angrily asked, although she already had an idea. She didn't wait for an answer, she hurried over to the books she dropped.

"Uhoh," B'Elanna remarked. "Are you sure..."

"Oh I'm sure!" Jessie snapped. All of the books were dumped on Tactical, the first one was opened immediately.

Tom looked at everyone else helplessly, the last person he looked at was B'Elanna. "Why haven't we got Red Alert on?" he asked in a tired voice.

"I really have no idea," B'Elanna answered.

Shoytin noticed the computer was blank once again. He placed Sasha back into the seat, then walked over to where James lay.

"Get me something to wake him up," he ordered.

Hikgel and the woman looked at each other, she eventually nodded nervously and ran out of the office. Hikgel remained where he was, tightly clutching his rifle to his chest.

"Are you really going to do this?" he stuttered.

Shoytin rolled his eyes, he passed the other man a deadly glare. Hikgel quickly swallowed the lump in his throat, he knew that look well. As Shoytin was turning his head back a hand shot forward and grabbed his throat. All he could see were a pair of intense eyes glaring into his own as he struggled to breathe.

"Uhoh," Hikgel panicked. He raised the rifle up, but wasn't sure where to shoot. He was torn between his Captain's attacker or the girl in the chair. It didn't matter, he noticed he had been left with the broken rifle and it would probably only shoot the floor in this state. By now his leader was being lifted off the ground, he struggled to pull the hand off but it was useless.

Hikgel ran over to help. James saw him coming, he swung his spare left arm into his path, knocking the man flying backwards onto the floor. His attention went back to Shoytin as his face started turning purple.

"Is this proof enough?" he asked coldly.

Hikgel clambered to get up. "Toren!" he yelled as he dashed outside.

What nobody noticed during this commotion was Sasha climbing down from the chair. She went to run but saw exactly what was happening, she started to shake.

"Daddy?" her scared voice got James' full attention. His head turned her way, his own face softened at the sight of hers. He looked back at the man clinging to life in front of him, then again at his terrified daughter. The anger was all but gone, but he worried what would happen to her if he let this man live. The look on her face though, he didn't want her to see this.

Shoytin barely had any breath left in him, he was close to passing out. James shook his head, he was about to let him go when Hikgel charged back into the office. He wasn't alone though.

"Let him go, or I'll kill them both!" he shouted. James looked around and saw who he was talking about, he couldn't help but cringe.

"I kick your ass!" Miral screeched as she struggled in the man's arms.

James sighed. His hand lowered, Hikgel relaxed a little as Shoytin was returned to the ground. He didn't loosen his grip on Miral though so he stopped.

"You first," Hikgel growled.

"All right, fine," James groaned. He continued to lower Shoytin but at the last second he tossed him towards Hikgel. The man jumped in shock as his leader slammed into the wall directly beside him. Miral used his reaction to slip out of his arms.

Sasha assumed it was safe to run as well, only she ran right up to her dad and hugged his leg tightly. He put his arm around her shoulders.

"Asshole," Miral grunted, giving the alien man a kick before running off. Unfortunately it gave him time to recover from his shock and grab her before she could get away.

"Hey, no! No!" he snapped, pulling her right back to in front of him. "That's not what I told you to do."

"You said let him go, I did," James said.

Hikgel shook his head, though that wasn't the only part of him that was shaking. He looked petrified. "No, you tried to kill him. That's two mistakes, so two kids."

"He didn't give me any choice, I did warn him," James said.

Miral gave Hikgel a punch in the leg. It only made him madder so he picked her back up. "I'll tell you what. We either have two hostages as well as you. Or you two separate, and we can go back to having one."

Meanwhile:
It was dark and empty, almost hollow. Everything about it, including the air seemed like it belonged somewhere else. It was the perfect place for her to go. It reminded her of her own place on Voyager, not just that, but in this timeline as well. She was an outsider, dragged unwillingly into it. The only difference was, she didn't want to drag the other fourteen decks into hell with her.

Lena didn't know what she wanted. For now having some peace and quiet, away from prying and sympathetic eyes was enough.

Her thoughts drifted back to Kiara. Despite how she felt, she was relieved to see her again. She had silently hoped that she would feel the same way. Lena knew better though, everytime the girl would look her in the eye she could tell the opposite was true. She didn't blame her one bit.

At first Lena thought it was her head playing tricks on her when the walls seemed to get brighter. Then everything around her was swallowed by a brief but blinding light. The light quickly faded.

It didn't take her long to realise that she was no longer on Voyager. The place she was at now looked familiar, but felt different, darker. Cold and lifeless. Just as she felt, she thought.

Her eyes were drawn to the leather chair in the centre of the room she was in. It felt like it was inviting her over, yet at the same time something inside pushed her further away from it. An internal voice saying, "you don't deserve it." As usual it was her own.

Looking around she noticed all the computers, work stations, screens were blank. Chairs were left discarded, as if someone left them in a hurry. There was damage, yet another difference. The bulkhead near the entrance to the Ready Room had collapsed in on itself. If it wasn't so dark she would be able to see inside it.

Lena continued to stare through the gap, hoping to see something.

Another flash of light, this time behind her, got her full attention and she turned around to see what it was. The man standing there now was more than familiar. It felt like it had been years since she last felt like this, she had almost forgotten what it was like. All she wanted to do was hurt him.

"Q?" was all she said.

"Lena my dear, long time no see."

Her right hand clenched, she felt an overwhelming urge to throw it into his smug face. She resisted for now. "Why am I on the Enterprise?"

Q seemed a little disappointed, at least his smug face had toned down. He glanced around the empty Bridge. "Hmm yes, I suppose the old girl's seen better days. Although she suffered worse under Jean Luc's command at times."

"I said why?" Lena mumbled. "Why show me this illusion?"

"We needed to be alone and it's no illusion," Q answered.

"I heard..." Lena made sure to look around again. The lack of light or even just power, as well as the damage, the emptiness. It made sense to her now. Almost.

"Yes your Enterprise is still trapped," Q answered as if he read her mind. "Just think of this as a representation, a visual aid for your mortal mind to comprehend. The Continuum is difficult to explain to ones not like us."

That made even less sense to her, but at least she understood why the Enterprise still had enough power for her to breathe. "Why?" she asked.

"The little one is in a spot of bother. Apparently she was about to abuse powers she shouldn't for her own personal gain," Q replied.

"Kiara?" Lena said. She understood less and less, "I don't under... you do it, all the time."

Q nodded, his face was still oddly serious. "I did and my powers were revoked. I made sure that during her time with me that she understood the rules."

It didn't seem that bad to her. What could she have done that was as bad or worse than him? "So they'll take her powers away?"

"You think we're being harsh," Q said.

Lena shook her head, "no of course not. Your whole existence seems to be about tormenting Kiara and me." Q's face fell, she didn't expect it or care either. "Why don't you just leave us alone!?"

"I brought you here to help you," Q protested.

"Help me? What about Kiara? It's the only reason I'm even talking to you or at all," Lena said.

Q nodded, he slowly walked over to the central seat and soon got himself comfortable. "Believe it or not but I'm not the bad guy here." The resulting look on her face made him wary of saying anything more about that. "The Continuum did not want to lose Kiara. On the contrary. The issue for them is she's obviously too Human."

"Oh I'm sorry," Lena muttered. The anger she thought was no longer there was threatening to spill. It wasn't a good thing, she hated it. "Why didn't I think of that before I had the audacity to exist. Whatever can I do?"

"Lena," Q said gently to her surprise. "We do not blame anyone, at least not you. The unfortunate truth is Kiara can no longer exist as both Human and Q. She has to choose."

"You are proof that doing selfish things with their power isn't limited to Humans," Lena pointed out.

"I didn't say it was," Q said. "A minor teleportation spell or two, a niggle at best. Sedating intruders holding hostages; risky and a little unethical. Disabling intruder's weapons, definitely could cause more problems than help. Erasing their memories, power abuse at its worst."

Lena wasn't sure what he was saying. "What hostages?" she wondered out loud. "She did all those things?"

"Only the first one. The Continuum retrieved her before she could really do some damage," Q replied. "Of course they're taking it out on me too. I trained her, therefore she's my responsibility in your stead."

"You poor thing." Lena didn't mean it. "If she wasn't ready, why let her leave?"

"As long as she's bound to Humanity, she'll never be ready," Q said in a tone that told her they weren't his words. He was only repeating them. "The Continuum knew it would come to this all along. Her recent behaviour has just inspired them to move things forward now."

Lena shook her head timidly. "No, she only wanted to help people. That's the opposite of self gain by the way. I thought that what you people do is just that. Or are having powers just an ego boost?"

"Rescuing a group of kids, even the two Slayer ones, from desperate aliens isn't something they would trouble themselves over. It's a mortal problem," Q answered.

"So if she chooses Humanity, she loses her powers. What happens if she picks a Q life?" Lena questioned.

Q seemed forlorn at the question. "She doesn't. They've elected you to choose her fate."

Dread washed over her like a wave, the anger went away with the tide. "Me? Sometimes I can't even decide whether to breathe out or take a step. How can I? It's not for me to choose."

"She's still a child by Q terms, and if I'm not mistaken that despite her appearance she is in Human ones as well," Q answered. "You're her mother. Also to answer your previous question, if you choose the Q existence she'll have to return home."

"But..." Lena's voice started to crack as her body trembled. "For good?"

Q nodded only once. "If she were to live as a Q, she'd have to leave her Human life behind completely. Kiara wouldn't be the first."

The fake Enterprise surroundings were slowly fading away into black. It didn't matter, it wasn't real. Lena remembered her recent time on Voyager feeling the exact same way. Empty yet familiar, colder and unforgiving. It would fade away like a bad dream, only it would drag her back in. This illusion was eerily alike.

"I'm sorry, if it were up to me..." Q seemed genuinely apologetic. He seemed to notice the illusion was fading away as well, it wasn't just her. "I wouldn't make you pick."

"But you did," Lena said quietly. "I know now. You took Kiara away and then you saw fit to take away everything I had as well. Voyager, my family... I watched as they were destroyed. I was left alone, but you did nothing to stop any of it. It was all part of the plan, wasn't it?"

Q was shocked, it was so obvious to her, his fake Human face had paled to a ghostly white. "There was nothing wrong with that timeline, Q. It was fine until you and your friend came along. You chose to take Kiara away, not once, not twice but now a third. Surely your precious timeline has been fixed. Please just stop, I can't take anymore of this!" she pleaded.

"I didn't want it this way, I promise you that," Q said.

Lena didn't, couldn't believe him. "Liar, I was there. You saw my pregnancy by that horrible Q as something good. You saw an opportunity, you took it. You didn't seem torn at all!"

"You do remember your previous life," Q said, there was a little fear on his features now. "That's not possible."

"I was dead for almost two years and yet here I am. So why the hell not?" Lena muttered.

"You weren't supposed to remember for a reason," Q said.

"Why?" Lena asked. "To fit your I'm Kiara trick, which you yourself exposed five years ago. Why didn't you restore it then?"

Q pulled himself out of the chair. He slowly approached her. "To spare you from exactly this. The pain, the confusion of a lost past."

"No, you just wanted to be cruel. Don't deny that. All powerful Q's can't spare one nano second to save innocent children, but still have time to kick up a fuss when one thinks about trying. That says it all," Lena said.

"Enough of this, Q!" a booming voice echoed over the darkness. Lena sensed it come from all around her. It began to concentrate between her and Q. Then she saw a figure fade into view. Before either of them could say anything, the figure spoke, "the child is your responsibility. Choose."

James' eyebrow raised. "What?"

"You heard me. It's either both or just her!" Hikgel snapped. The woman from before walked in, holding the only good rifle. "Let her go back to her seat, I'll let this one go, and you don't try anything while we restrain you..." His eyes darted to where James lay before, two metal devices a lot like handcuffs were there now, broken in two pieces each. "Better this time."

James felt Sasha's grip on him loosen, he looked down to find her pulling away. "No, what are you doing?" he kept a firm but still gentle hold on her shoulders.

"But... Miral," she said quietly.

"This should be easy, why have two kids in danger when you can just pick one!" Hikgel yelled.

"Easy?" James snapped in surprise. "You're asking me to choose between keeping my daughter safe but still trapped in here with you, and risk getting another child hurt or worse. Or put my own daughter at risk to spare someone elses."

"Yes," Hikgel tried to cover his fear with a laugh, it wasn't convincing anyone. "Simple. Any father would pick their kid first. Are you really so twisted that this is a hard choice for you?"

James again looked down at his daughter, she stared up at him, her eyes pleading with him to let her go. "It says a lot..." he said, slowly looking back towards Hikgel and his teammate. "That I'm not the twisted one here."

"Prove it. Choose," Hikgel said.

The woman shook her head, "you couldn't have just threatened a simple exchange, your kid for this kid?" She knelt down beside Shoytin to check on him.

"No," Hikgel nervously laughed. "Cos we know he would have picked this one. We'd lose our advantage against him." Miral started kicking her legs fiercely, each one slammed into Hikgel's upper legs, he cringed with each one.

The woman turned a little pale as she inspected the huge bruise around her leaders neck. "I... you call this an advantage?"

"Maybe I really knew he'd keep a hold of his own kid and risk this little monster, this way we get two," Hikgel muttered, slowly moving the attacking girl further forward from him so she couldn't hit him. "Seriously, only a guy who would do that to our Captain would care about a little demon like this!"

Miral made a disappointed aaw sound when every kick she just hit air. She then looked down at the hands holding her, her eyes started to sparkle.

"Daddy," Sasha said. "I don't wanna hurt Miral. Please."

James knelt down beside her, all while keeping his arm over her shoulders. "I don't either. But, I refuse to let these so called people touch you again."

"But..." Sasha protested, her eyes welling up again. Her shaking hand reached forward to touch his face, only she stopped at the last second. "My fault."

There was a nasty crunch, then a man's scream. "Aaaw you little parasite..." Hikgel grumbled. He tried to stop her, but the little girl's teeth just clamped further down. The woman groaned, she leaned over to try and take her away from him.

"That's not true at all," James said softly. "I failed, so this is my fault."

"Aaaw!" Miral moaned as the woman held her now. Hikgel had gladly swapped her for the rifle, which he was also happy to point at her.

Sasha pouted, "you hurt, Miral's here. I just want to help."

"I know you do," James said.

"Ugh, what kind of freak of nature doesn't pick his own kid's safety?" the woman grunted.

Hikgel nodded, "I know I would, these Slayers are obviously sick in the head." He pointed towards Shoytin.

"That's not true," Sasha grumbled. "He..." James lifted her up from the ground, he then stood up. The two aliens seemed a little relieved. "Daddy?"

"I want my daughter to be safe more than anything, but..." he said, sounding slightly hesitant. "What kind of asshole would I be if I endangered somebody else's daughter to do it?"

"So you choose to let this one go back to the others and let us threaten your kid?" Hikgel was surprised. "Wow, that's cold."

James shook his head, his other arm went around Sasha as well, pulling her closer to his chest. "I never said that..."

"Fine, the demon stays," Hikgel smiled. Miral responded by blowing a raspberry, though none of them were really sure who it was aimed for. Then she folded her arms tightly in a huff.

"No," James said, glancing briefly at his daughter's face, then at Miral. "She doesn't," his voice cracked. Sasha smiled up at him proudly before cuddling into him.

Hikgel stared at his companion, surprise all over his face. She matched it. "Never saw that coming," he said. "All right, put her down on that seat and walk away."

James hesitated as his daughter snuggled into his shoulder, clutching him tightly. This didn't feel right at all. "God, what am I... what am I doing?" he whispered so quietly, he didn't want her to hear it.

She heard it anyway and smiled up at him again. "I don't want Miral getting hurt like you, cos of me." When his eyes closed tightly her head shook, "it's ok daddy. You'll win, always do. I'm not scared."

"Hurry up!" Hikgel snarled.

As James opened his eyes, a tear escaped one. "Cos my daddy's a hero," she said, giving him another cuddle. "He always finds a way out, no matter what."

"Enough of this, you're stalling," Hikgel grew angry. He was starting to panic again, he stepped forward to point the rifle at James instead. "Put her down!"

James' eyes squeezed shut again, this time when he opened them they looked determined. He gave his daughter a little kiss on the forehead before placing her gently down on the chair.

"Good, now... show us this proof that you helped with the anomaly, on the databases!" Hikgel stammered nervously.

"Hikgel," the woman warned him.

"You saw what he did to Shoytin, but you didn't see what he did to me when I tried to stop it," Hikgel hissed. "It's true."

James shook his head, not that Hikgel could see it much as his back was still on him. "Miral's still here."

"Not until you're back over there!" the woman snapped, pointing at his earlier spot on the floor.

Hikgel marched over to stand mostly between James and Sasha, his rifle kept pointing at one of them for a few seconds before moving to the other.

"I'm hearing different orders here," James said.

"If it's true you're taking a big risk by not separating them further. We don't need computer proof if you're so sure," the woman said.

What was left of Hikgel's restraint snapped like a puny twig, his face flushed red. "Shut up and put that demon down, I know what I'm doing!" he screamed in her direction.

The woman was taken aback by his outburst. She lowered Miral to the ground anyway, then gave her a gentle push to the door. Miral just stood there though with a confused look on her face.

"Good, now..." Hikgel said, not noticing Miral's reaction. He gestured his head toward the computer. "All you've proven is that you're a violent waste of super strength. Prove that you're the reason Voyager is here and then we can leave." James stepped forward but Hikgel quickly pointed the rifle back at the seat. "One little computer trick like the forcefields and I shoot. Understand?"

Miral looked up at the woman who held her, then forward at the other three. "Go," the woman whispered, giving her another push. The little girl pouted, her eyes widened. As James moved forward towards the table she could see Sasha sitting in the seat clearly, Hikgel still kept his rifle trained on her. It made her mad again.

James reached forward to drag the computer closer. His fingers went to tap something when the screen flickered off and back on in a space of a second, his fingers just hovered hesitantly.

"You really want your kid dead don't you?" Hikgel snarled.

James' jaw clenched, the left hand did as well. It was all he could to tame the anger for now. "You want proof that I helped. I'm not even sure how..."

"What?" Hikgel snapped.

The woman's eyes widened as Miral ran forward instead of leaving, she quickly grabbed her arm to pull her back. Despite the obvious struggle, the woman carried her outside.

"I may be able to show you what I did to shut down the helm, but other than that..." James said. "What I did in Engineering is impossible to show, there's no camera or anything up there."

"Then show me the first thing," Hikgel snapped.

"I'll have to explain it, it's complicated," James said quietly as he worked.

Hikgel grunted, all it took was one little kick to make the chair roll into the wall. Sasha let out a little squeal as it did. He kept his rifle pointed at her as James swung around to see what happened. It took all the restraint he had, even some he didn't think he possessed, to stop himself from attacking the man.

"Do not insult me again," Hikgel warned slowly.

"Why me? Can't you get your kick from doing nothing while a planet inhabited by billions die?" Lena said bitterly.

The unknown Q didn't even blink, let alone react. His face was completely blank. "You have us all wrong young lady. It's not our job to babysit the universe. We oversee larger events."

"Oh so stopping Kiara from saving kids and pestering me are more important than people dying. Good to know," Lena said.

"You misunderstand. We orchestrate but we do not get involved. Kiara knew this yet she violated that rule," the new Q said.

Lena shook her head, "I understand fine. We mortals do all the dirty work while you do what you want to us, all the while judging us as inferior. I've done nothing to you, yet you force a decision like this on me... when five years ago you were telling me I shouldn't exist!"

"I believe I've been misquoted here, so I'll explain..." Q said awkwardly.

"You are very much mistaken," the other Q interrupted. "We maneuvered you and the other into the here and now, for a much bigger purpose than yourselves. Kiara was a... fortunate accident which gave us the eventual means to do so." While he was talking Lena noticed Q become uncharacteristically shaken and worried. It didn't suit him at all and it was a little unnerving to her. "Whether or not the girl joins us is of no consequence to us, though it is to you. You dub us as cruel, believing we are taking choice away from you when we are giving it back."

"What if I don't choose?" Lena questioned.

"We foresaw that conclusion, the majority of the Continuum decided that permanent exile from it would be for the best," the Q answered. "I on the other hand believe the girl has potential. As Q here would put it, she possesses the qualities of a mortal, which could keep the Q from falling into an evolutionary decline."

"I... I don't understand," Lena stuttered, her attention fully on the original Q. "You said she couldn't be both."

"She can't. She'll still possess some qualities of Humanity, yet she can not be among them if your choice is the Q," the Q answered.

Lena's head fell, something he had said earlier popped up in her head, like she had just heard it. "Me and the other," she looked back up. "Why say that and mention Kiara as a happy accident? Who is this other?"

"I'm sure you already know," the Q said.

"No. Only Kiara and I were forced into this version of the timeline, or whatever you idiots call it," Lena said. "There wasn't another."

"Your understanding is limited to the four dimensions. Do not concern yourself, it is natural for a Human," the Q replied.

Lena couldn't help but groan, "I thought that fifth dimension thing was a bad joke. Don't tell me it's actually true."

She finally got the Q to do something other than talk and stare blankly, although it was only an eyebrow raise. "Hardly. Space and time is infinite, it's beyond your full understanding."

"I don't actually care," Lena muttered. "I didn't care... no feel anything and now this. This is just trivial to you, but this is her life we're talking about. That's not something I can decide in a few minutes. Maybe that's something outside of your understanding."

"You have her memories, fabricated or otherwise. You are the best to make this decision," the Q said.

"Maybe I used..." Lena said.

Q seemed to panic, he quickly interrupted. "Kiara may still be a child, but she has proved many times that she is capable of making her own decisions. Look at the apparently two grown men dabbling with witchcraft, without a second thought to who it was hurting." He said the last half of the sentence looking straight at Lena sympathetically. "Kiara had that same choice, but she was mature enough to know what she was doing was wrong. So she tried to use one power to rescue children, that's no different than the other Slayer using his to try to do the same."

"He has a name," Lena muttered.

Q let himself smile, "yes, Blondy." Lena rolled her eyes in response. "My point is it should be up to Kiara to choose where her life goes. Lena here has only just returned from death, that isn't fair. It's not something we understand, so forgive us for that at least."

"No," Lena refused. "I could say I was done with you but I have Kiara to think about. One of the last things she said to me before she left, was that she felt like she didn't belong. She wanted to help but felt useless, especially when she failed to use her powers correctly. That was why she left, to control them better."

She felt the tears threatening to escape, she tried to hold them back for now. "I wanted her to stay so badly, I still do. I wanted to make up for all the bad times, the days where I blamed her for what you did to me. I was being selfish though, I realise that. What kind of mum puts her own happiness over her daughter's? Only me. The kind that shouldn't exist."

"I won't get in her way this time. If these are the only choices I have, then I don't choose to keep her here with me, trapped and miserable," Lena stuttered. She couldn't stop them now, the tears rolled down her cheeks. "She should be free."

"You are sure?" the Q said plainly. "This is your final decision?"

Lena nodded, "yes."

The Q nodded. He immediately faded back into the darkness, the Q she knew was about to object when he did the same, leaving Lena all alone again.

What she didn't know was that she really wasn't. Kiara had been there all along, a silent and invisible observer. She tried to yell out for her one more time, but she vanished as well.

Voyager's Bridge:
"Well, that's odd," Harry commented.

Tom and Chakotay both turned their heads towards him and B'Elanna.

"Shh! I'm trying to concentrate," Jessie grumbled. She turned one more page in the book she was engrossed in, only to lose her temper and toss it to one side. "Are any of these in bloody English?"

"Um," Tom cringed. "I think I'd rather have odd than that."

Jessie tried to separate what she thought was two pages stuck together, only they weren't. "Oh screw this, I'm just going to start reading outloud from them."

Harry started to panic, he wasn't the only one though. "We've got sensors back on Deck Eight."

"I have no idea how the hell you say that," Jessie muttered. "Han-chi, so... ugh!" That book was thrown aside as well.

"Great, how did you do that?" Tom asked, quickly pulling himself up onto his feet.

B'Elanna shook her head, "we didn't." She frowned as Opps started beeping in various different spots. Harry checked the ones at the back. "Something's wrong down there. It's almost like..."

Tom noticed Chakotay smirking in the corner of his eye. He didn't even bother to check to make sure, he ran over to join the others at Opps. "Like what?"

Deck Eight:
"Our computers wouldn't allow you access. How could you do the same to our ship?" Hikgel snapped.

James was starting to shake and not from fear. "I'll tell you what. Why don't I just punch you all into comas, destroy your computers. I'm sure that will work!"

"That's it," Hikgel spat.

For a second it was pitch black, then the lights flickered back on. Hikgel and the woman glanced around nervously, they noticed the computer panels on the wall were doing the same, as well as looking garbled.

"What the..." she said.

"Finally," James sighed. He grabbed a hold of the rifle, easily pulling it out of Hikgel's hands. The alien didn't have time to react to that before it was smashed into his ribs. Hikgel doubled over just to get a knee in the face.

"Ohno..." the woman stuttered. Her head darted between Sasha and the exit, in the end she chose the exit and made a run for it. It didn't matter, Hikgel flew straight towards her, knocking them both into the wall, not literally this time.

Sasha climbed down from her chair and ran over to James. He knelt down to pick her up. "You did it."

"Not yet sweetie," James said quietly as he straightened back up. His head turned towards the exit. "There's still some aliens left to deal with."

The lights flickered back off one by one, each one hissed and crackled as they did. Sasha started to tremble. "Is this the plan?" she squeaked.

James looked down at her, well tried to, the entire office was black. "Not exactly," he whispered his answer. With a sigh he made his way over to where he remembered the door being.

Something moved behind him, he felt it before he heard something swing through the air. A sharp piercing pain spread across the back of his leg, just below the knee. It buckled immediately, bringing him down to his knees.

"Dad...?" Sasha stuttered as the grip on her was loosened. She thought she would fall again once it was gone completely, her legs brushed against the carpet. "What happ..."

"Run!" she heard James tell her in a panicked voice. Just then the lights flashed on for a second. All she got in that mere second was that her dad was down and there was a familiar man crawling behind him, holding a stained knife. "Now!"

Sasha let out a little squeak as she hurried to get on her feet. This time she didn't want to hold her dad back by being there, she did as he told her to; run.

The Bridge:
Nobody noticed the alien ship on the viewscreen not only stopped using its tractor beam, but had turned around so it was nose to nose with Voyager.

"Um, we're slowing down," Nathan said. He looked up at the screen and it made sense, mostly, "oh."

"How did a virus get in?" Tom asked.

Harry shook his head, "I have no idea, but thanks to the aliens cutting themselves off from us, it only infected Deck Eight."

Chakotay chuckled, he climbed to his feet. "Really, no idea? I thought you were smarter than that Harry."

"Guys, the ship," Nathan tried to butt in.

"The forcefields. That's why they overloaded," B'Elanna mused. She looked annoyed with herself, "I should have seen it."

Tom jumped to his feet, he directed his fiery eyes towards the ex-Commander in front of him. "Wait a minute. You knew this would happen, didn't you?"

"Maybe," Chakotay said but his face said yes.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Tom snapped. He swung around to face Jessie who was just looking confused. "Who's idea was this?" He turned back, "yours? James'?"

Chakotay shook his head. "Why are you getting so bent out of shape?"

"Why!?" Tom couldn't believe what he was hearing. He turned to B'Elanna and Harry at Opps to see if he was alone in this, they looked concerned as well. "Systems start failing on Deck Eight and Shoytin decides to even the score by shooting. I think that's worth getting bent out of shape over."

B'Elanna was starting to get angry again, the poor Opps station got the brunt of it. "I can't get a lock on anyone. All I can do is look for Human lifesigns..."

"And?" Chakotay questioned.

B'Elanna growled, "and!? The aliens could be physically holding some of them hostage, it's also a little slower. I need to be able to get them out in a mass or I'll just piss them off."

Harry spotted something else flashing, "we're being hailed by the alien ship. Must be Damien."

"Now I know this was your idea. You don't care about anyone, do you?" Tom spat.

Jessie tossed her last book to the floor, when she looked up she noticed the atmosphere was a little different to when she started reading. "Um, what did I miss?"

"Will you relax? Shoytin's not going to start firing on anyone," Chakotay said. "That's the part of the plan..."

"I'll just answer him," Harry muttered. "Voyager here."

"Why wouldn't he? We've just mucked up his other advantage over us," Tom snapped.

"Hey you're lucky this thing is defective. I'm still a genius so, you're welcome," Damien's voice said.

"Great, but you do realise that by disabling the tractor and moving you probably alerted them," Harry whispered.

"Hmm, no I haven't. I gave them the old snip. Unless they have a window, they'll be clueless."

Chakotay folded his arms, smiling smugly. "Then it's a good thing we have a man on the inside, isn't it?"

Jessie stared at him, her eyes were wide and her jaw was threatening to drop. "What?"

Tom frowned at her then back at Chakotay. "Wait, I thought she was in on this plan."

"Damn, sounds like I'm missing some fun over there."

Harry rolled his eyes, "not really."

B'Elanna sighed angrily. "Can you use their transporters to beam them out?"

Tom rushed over to Tactical despite the dangerous look on Jessie's face. "You said James wouldn't go in there. Did you lie to throw me off? How could both of you do this, you saw what happened with Sasha, this is just..."

Jessie scowled at him. As he expected he got a punch in the nose. She wasn't done though, she stomped over to where Chakotay stood. He braced himself for a similar move. "You had no intention of James returning from the virus plant. What the hell did you do?"

"No. Oh while we're on the betrayal topic, your Q wonder kid nicked off. I thought that was a little rude. So whenever you're ready to beam me back. I want to watch this."

"Please, James should have known that the virus would provoke the aliens. He had to be in there to stop that," Chakotay explained.

"Shoytin could have killed one of the kids before he even got there. What were you thinking?" B'Elanna snapped.

Chakotay stared down at the floor. "I'm sorry, but someone had to make the call. There was no easy way out of this." He looked back up again, daring to stare in Jessie's direction. "I figured we needed somebody on the inside, who better than what the aliens were asking for."

"Hello? At least beam me some popcorn over and put on the viewscreen."

"That wasn't your call to make," Tom said as he pulled himself to his feet. B'Elanna passed him a sympathetic glance, his nose was still bleeding and the area around it was black. "No, we haven't got time for this. I assume the forcefields they put up were the first to go?"

B'Elanna nodded, "seems that way, but not all of them."

"We haven't got a choice then. They already had Sasha as the main hostage. Shoytin would either have killed her by now or is using her to make James do whatever he wants," Tom said. "Chakotay may as well have sent Damien down there for all the good it will do."

"Tom," B'Elanna warned him, her eyes gesturing towards Jessie.

Jessie's eyes narrowed, she stood very close to Chakotay. "You weren't on the Bridge when James was planting the virus. I should have known you were behind the overload."

"No you shouldn't, that was the point," Chakotay muttered.

"You were whining about that demon/bomb incident ten years ago. If you really think like that, why..." Jessie questioned.

Tom meanwhile headed for the turbolift, B'Elanna hurried over to him. "Tom just let Security take care of it. You're too close to this, just like James is."

"Yeah but I'm not like him, I wouldn't risk other people's kids to save my own," Tom whispered to her.

Jessie overheard him anyway, her head turned quickly. Tom didn't dare check to see what expression she had, he had a good idea anyway. What he didn't know was that he was wrong, she just looked shocked.

"Jessie," Chakotay tried to get her attention back. "I did this because I have faith in him."

"Bull," Jessie bitterly laughed, turning her head back and forth between him and Tom.

"Yeah," Chakotay admitted, setting her back to angry again. "He was going to charge in once the virus took anyway. I just gave him a head start. Either way, Shoytin was going to be angry and do something. My way there's someone there to try and stop it."

"Someone there to be taken advantage of, you mean. Hold the fort," Tom said in Harry's direction. He nodded back grimly as Tom stepped into the turbolift.

"Can someone tune me into the version that isn't PG. I'm getting a little bored."

"Sure," Jessie grumbled. She headed over to Opps, scaring Harry half to death in the process. He didn't dare stop her.

"Good, I'm getting the viewscreen signal. Huh, what's that... that's not the Bridge," Damien's voice started to stutter.

"Ooh, this catsuit's a bit tight, I'm getting a bit of a wedgie," Annika's voice giggled.

The last anyone heard before the comm was cut off was Damien's chilling screams.

The nursery's lights struggled to come back on, when they did they were weaker and continued flashing between dim and off.

Yana was starting to panic as her tricorder like device wasn't helping her at all. "I don't understand."

The rest of the aliens kept a tight hold of their rifles. Even though they didn't want to use them, they kept them trained on their hostages. The panic was starting to eat away at them as well.

"Fix it Yana, you know Shoytin won't stand for this," Rhone said.

Yana shook her head timidly, "I can't. I think it's some sort of virus, it's shutting down almost everything."

Jita glanced towards the office door as it opened, but only halfway. She saw nobody there, only black. "We have to go."

None of the aliens saw Sasha run through the crack in the door. It shut behind her.

"What? We'd be no better off outside," Rhone said.

"It's not us I'm worried about. You said it yourself, Shoytin will tell us to start shooting when he comes out of there," Jita stuttered.

Sasha ran over to the group of children Duncan was with, tears streaming down her face. Duncan panicked and quickly pulled her down to sit in between him and Bryan. Markal looked over to check on them seconds later.

When nothing happened Duncan sighed in relief. He glanced over and saw Sasha rubbing her arm, pouting angrily. Her eyes were still watering though.

"Sorry, I didn't want them to see you escaping," he whispered.

"Dad, that leader man attacked him," Sasha stuttered.

Duncan didn't look worried, "why you worried? Dad's better than that creep."

Sasha stared towards the door she escaped from. "Daddy's hurt."

Markal walked over to Yana, his nerves were starting to get the better of him. "Just beam us all back to the ship. It's the only way now."

"It's not," Yana stuttered. "Every command I send to our ship is being sent back. It's not responding."

The lights would dimly return, only to flicker back off with a nasty hiss. The computer on the desk activated itself, so it was the only source of light when the main lights went off again.

There was a loud crash as Shoytin flew into the desk, smashing it to bits. During one light flicker he saw a discarded rifle lying nearby. When the light disappeared again his left hand reached forward to grab it.

James was standing, but just barely. His right leg was weakened and still bleeding. He approached slowly, then stopped when he heard movement in front of him.

The light flickered back on, allowing Shoytin to target the rifle. James ducked down to dodge it. Shoytin re-aimed, his target attempted to roll to one side. He fired again quickly, this time the blast hit him right in the arm. James fell onto his back.

The alien woman awoke to find herself being crushed by something heavy. It had winded her, she had trouble breathing back out. When the lights flickered back on she realised the weight was Hikgel. Another flicker of light and she saw the commotion in front of her. She waited for another before daring to move.

Shoytin smiled, but it was an angry smile. His body ached, it was too difficult to stand back up so he crawled over to his victim with his knife still in his right hand, and the rifle under his arm. To further his anger he noticed that the blast hadn't killed him, he tried to look at his rifle but it was too dark to see.

"Damn it," he grunted, resisting the urge to toss it to one side. James was starting to get back up, he didn't have time to check it.

The lights flickered again and the woman found the nerve to push Hikgel away from her. She waited for another so she could run.

"I don't care if you are the only way home," Shoytin snarled. He swung the rifle towards James' face. His right hand swung out to grab his wrist, just in time to hold it back. The right hand carrying the knife swung around to stab the blocking arm. A smile appeared on his face as that hand loosened its grip on his wrist.

He wasn't done. Instead of hitting him he pushed the rifle against his throat as hard as he could. "I'll rip you apart." James tried to pull it away with the arm that wasn't stabbed, but it was his burned and now phasered one, it wasn't as easy as he thought.

This time the lights flickered and stayed on for a few seconds. The woman clambered away towards the door as fast as she could.

"That's it," Markal stuttered when the lights went off yet again. "I'm getting out of here." He headed for the door and he wasn't the only one, Jita was right behind him.

"No you're... not," the woman wheezed as she entered the room. The pair stopped in their tracks. "Outside or in... they're coming... for us. Here, we have the hostages."

Yana stared in dismay, "you can't be serious. Is Shoytin still..."

"Shoytin has what we need," the woman said painfully. She leaned on the wall for support. "Provided he doesn't... kill him."

"The man we brought in?" Rhone was confused.

Jita shook her head, she stepped forward defiantly. "No, this stops now. We can still turn ourselves in, do the right thing."

"Why?" the woman asked in surprise.

Markal didn't look so sure, "actually I was leaving to escape, but co-operating means we might still be able to escape the sphere. We've lost anyway, what have we got to lose?"

"We haven't," the woman coughed. "Yana, get us all ready for transport. In the meantime we negotiate the release of the rest of our people."

"No," Yana said. "We can't. I've lost access to our ship. Voyager's shields have raised as well. We're stuck here."

"What?" the woman stuttered. "It doesn't matter. They'll listen or we'll..."

Rhone folded his arms tightly and scowled. "Oh so you are okay with killing children after all, Toren? Good to know."

"Of course not! But we have no choice now," the woman continued to stutter.

"Yes we do," Jita said. She dropped her rifle to the floor. Toren shook as the rest of the aliens did the same thing. She didn't have hers anymore either, her body shook in panic.

"No! I won't fail him," she said boldly. Before any of them could really move forward, she rushed to grab the child closest to her. The one closest was one of the twin girls.

"Don't be a fool Toren!" Markal shouted at her.

Toren shook her head timidly. The girl in her arms struggled as she side stepped towards the exit. Markal being the closest to the door knelt down to pick up his rifle again. "Don't, I'll hurt her." He froze on the spot, unsure what to do. He didn't have any choice as she picked up the same rifle and pointed it at him.

"Move!" she snapped.

Markal sighed, he did as he was told. There was nothing now stopping her from getting through the door. She ran as fast as she could manage.

"What do we do?" Jita asked.

Yana shook her head, her head turned towards the rest of the children. "We need to let them go, but the Voyager crew need to know it."

"Maybe we could..." Rhone started to say when the doors swiftly opened again. The nursery was soon filled with a dozen Security officers and Tom.

"Put your weapons down!" Tom yelled.

Craig noticed they already had first, he cringed a little. "They must have known you were coming." Tom just scowled at him. "All right, stay where you are..." He gestured to the other team members. They walked forward towards the children.

"Wait, before you do that, one of our people escaped," Yana said.

Craig quickly scanned the room, "there's only four here. That's more than one."

Tom spotted his daughter sitting by one of the tables. He rushed over to her first. "Miral?" He was unnerved as his little girl was crying. "Sweetheart, it's okay now."

She shook her head and pointed underneath the table. Tom crouched down to look too. He saw Amy sitting with her back facing them both. Tom was a bit confused.

"Lets get you and your brothers out first," he said softly.

"She just ran out with a child, you might be able to catch her," Rhone said.

"What about the other two?" Craig asked.

"They'll be in the office," Jita replied.

Craig walked over to Tom as he stood up with his daughter. "Tom..."

"No problem, I got it," he nodded. He tried to tap his commbadge with his only spare hand, but Miral was starting to struggle.

Craig shook his head, he tapped his own. "Anderson to Team Two and Three. We've got a runner somewhere on this deck, they have a kid. Be careful." He tapped it again. "I was going to say supervise the kid evacuation and I'll check the office."

"Oh," Tom sighed, a little disappointed. "So let me guess, the escapee was Shoytin?" The aliens looked towards the office nervously. Tom and Craig followed their trail of sight.

"Daddy's in there," Sasha piped up. Tom and Craig looked towards her, Tom was surprised to see her. Miral was too. "He's hurt." Bryan didn't have to look, he knew Duncan was getting up so he held his arm again.

Miral glanced up at her dad. "Someone should help him. He helped me." Craig and Tom glanced at one another. "Please."

"You don't like it when you're the one getting murdered, do you freak?" Shoytin snarled. He grimaced as the grip James now had on his arm was getting tighter, the resulting ache was intense. The forearm was starting to tingle like tiny pins were pricking him, his skin grew ice cold. There was a sickening crack. All he could do was scream.

Fortunately for him he didn't have to endure the agony for very long. A phaser blast struck his back, he toppled to the floor right beside James. He meanwhile sat up, his now bloody hand rushed to his throat. His eyes glanced up to see somebody standing at the door, pointing a phaser rifle towards him.

"Tom?" James said in a hoarse voice.

Tom cringed as he walked slowly over to him. "You look like hell." He then glanced at Shoytin lying beside him and felt a little sick. "Though, could be worse."

"What?" James said. He turned his head towards the man lying beside him, focusing mainly on what was left of the man's arm. The part he had held onto was mostly red, blood was still flowing from it. He could even see a bone, broken at the edge of the wound. "Oh..."

Tom knelt down on the opposite side, trying to avert his eyes from that sight. "Miral told me what you did."

James cringed, he tried to sit up but with both arms damaged it was difficult. "I'm sorry. She shouldn't have been there. I..."

"What are you talking about?" Tom asked, genuinely confused. Noticing his struggle, he put the rifle down so he could help him to a sitting position. "You had an awful choice; keep your kid safe with you but risk another, put her back in harms way but save the other kid. You chose to save my daughter, that can't have been easy..."

James felt sick at the thought, he covered his face with bloody hand. "Oh god. Sasha, is she all right?"

Tom nodded, "yeah she's just worried about you. And hey man, thank you, I won't ever forget this."

"No, neither will I," James said bitterly, his eyes shut tightly.

"From what Miral said, they weren't going to let Sasha go either way," Tom said sympathetically. "You did the right thing and I'm not saying that as Miral's father, I'm saying that as a fellow Human."

"Sure," James wasn't convinced. He struggled to push himself back to his feet. Tom shook his head and decided to help him with that too.

Toren ran down the corridor in a blind panic. The poor girl she had taken was crying loudly, so anyone nearby would know where she was. The path she picked was blocked by an orange shield, which was starting to fail. Figuring she didn't have time to wait for it to do so, she turned around and ran back to the junction. Instead of going straight ahead she turned left, almost slamming straight into somebody else.

"Hey," the person said, her voice sounded plain and unfeeling. Her face however didn't match, she was angry and her eyes were puffy and red. "What are you doing?"

"I..." Toren stuttered. She tried to raise the rifle but it was knocked flying out of her hands. "Um... I..." The next thing she knew a fist was coming towards her face.

Her body tumbled to the floor, however the person ahead of her grabbed the child from her before she went too far. The girl calmed down but was still sniffling in fear.

"Don't worry. You can go home to your mother now," Lena said to her. "Somebody should." She turned around to walk back the way she came.

"It seems like the aliens were surrendering before we even turned up," Craig said as he walked down the corridor.

James glanced at him briefly. "Really?" he didn't sound interested to him.

"You know Sasha was being all my daddy did this and did that like any proud kid would. She's not upset with you. Why are you beating yourself up?" Craig asked.

James stopped, forcing Craig to stop. He sighed, "you're one to talk aren't you?"

"Yeah but my thing killed a girl and brought back a girl who didn't want to come back," Craig said meekly.

"I handed my little girl over to psycho kidnappers. I think I have you beat," James said, his shoulders slumped.

Craig folded his arms, his head shook as well. "You weren't told to pick which one to die or save, you were asked should this second kid stay or go? If you picked Miral to stay in danger, then I'd be questioning you."

James stared at him, his brow furrowed. "Daniel performed the ritual. You could have easily been replaced by any old person, your involvement didn't matter."

Craig laughed for a second or two, "sorry. What a pair we are." He expected James to smile or laugh back, but he didn't. "At least your daughter seems perfectly happy and proud of what you did. Lena, well... that's another story."

"She was never going to come back all smiles and jokes, was she?" James said.

"Wow, you have mellowed haven't you?" Craig said, not seriously. He continued walking down the corridor. "The old you would have beat me up by now."

James' eyebrow raised. "You saw what I did to Daniel, right?" He followed him quickly. "And Shoytin... AND that Hik guy."

"Yeah yeah, hit a guy with a bed, you're such a badass," Craig smirked as he entered the Holodeck. James followed him to the door with the same confused look on his face. He shrugged it off once he walked through the doors.

The prisoners were no longer being kept on an empty hologrid. Somebody had programmed a giant version of the brig, and every one of the aliens were behind a forcefield. Luckily for everyone Annika was not locked in with them, or in the room for that matter. Tom and Harry stood on the opposite side, both of them glanced at the newcomers as they entered.

"I might have to discuss it with the others, but I think we have come up with a solution," Tom said.

Craig stopped beside him, he glanced briefly at the aliens directly in front of them both. "We're not stealing their ship, are we?"

Harry gritted his teeth and inhaled through them, his eyebrow raised. "Kinda."

"Kinda?" James said.

Tom shrugged. "We need another ship and these people need to get inside the anomaly. As I tried to tell Shoytin at the beginning, he could have asked for help right away."

James didn't like where this was going. "Tom, you know that most of these people had nothing to do with the kidnappings."

Tom chuckled, "yeah I'm not sending them on a mission with you to punish them. If I did, I'd send Annika." A lot of the aliens shuddered in revulsion, almost in unison. Craig and Harry looked impressed. "No. Apparently the second ship they sent inside the anomaly found something interesting. However since Shoytin was the only one who saw it via video comm link, we don't know what it was. All we know is that he saw it as an escape route and it made him a homicidal prick."

"No, he was that way before," Jita commented.

"So we can't ask him?" Craig questioned.

Tom laughed nervously, "no." James' eyebrow raised again, this time directed towards Tom. "Hey we're sharing the blame on this one. Phaser blast and a gaping hole in your arm, it turns out that is a lethal combination."

"So what is the plan?" James asked.

"Mostly same as before, I recommend some light reading," Tom answered with a smile.

"The only difference is the aliens will have to teach you how to use the ship," Harry quickly added on.

"Hopefully by the time we get there, Ylara will be feeling better," Tom said, making the other two men uncomfortable. Tom noticed it, "what?"

"Yeah, I really should have talked about that on the way here, instead of the pity party," Craig said quietly.

James nodded, then he frowned. "Pity party?" He then remembered something, "oh right, I said that to you before."

"Uh, what's going on?" Harry questioned.

James and Craig glanced at each other, Craig looked even more comfortable. "Yeah um, I don't think she'll be ready for a while yet," James answered.

"Mmmhmm, she's not herself," Craig quickly added on. James looked at him again, mouthing really? Craig responded with a shrug.

Tom and Harry stared at them both blankly. Tom leaned in close to his friend to whisper, "I owe you a day's rations." Harry nodded.

Kiara's Quarters:
The doors opened swiftly. Lena slowly walked through them, she stopped barely a foot into the room, keeping the doors open. She was shocked by how bare the quarters were, there wasn't one thing that appeared to belong to her.

As she walked further inside, the doors closed behind her. The sudden noise startled her, her whole body swung around. She had been staring at them for a few minutes before she realised it and shook her head.

A part of her was thankful that Kiara hadn't left anything behind. Being in this room was more than enough to make her throat throb. She decided to leave, it wasn't helping. A few steps was it all it took to open the doors again and leave this painful room behind. At the doorway though she hesitated. The room was bare, but it was still all she had left of her daughter. The tears threatened to fall.

The room lit up for a moment. Lena's shoulders slumped, her tears were wiped away. "Q. I'm not in the mood. Leave me alone."

"Nope," a familiar girl's voice said. "Not anymore."

Lena felt her body start to shake as her head turned to look over her shoulder. She turned around completely, her eyes filling with tears again. "Kiara? What..." she tried to wipe them away again. "Why are you here?"

It was the second time she had asked her that, but this time Kiara smiled genuinely, her bright blue eyes sparkled. "I know what you did for me, I'm grateful but..." A lump started to form in her own throat, she tried to swallow it so she could continue. "I'd much rather be here, with you." The tears freely falling down Lena's cheeks were making her eyes well up as well, she didn't try to stop it though.

"But... you, you wanted to..." Lena protested. Kiara shook her head, she hurried over and wrapped her arms around her tightly. Her face buried into her shoulder, she could feel the girl's sobs vibrating through her. Lena didn't even try to stop it anymore, she let the tears come. Her arms went around her as tightly as she could. The two collapsed to the ground, but kept their hold on each other. Their cries eventually died down and turned into somber smiles.

THE ...

Annika walked down a corridor minding her own business. What she didn't know was that somebody was following her. All she could think about was what colour or patterned catsuit she hadn't come up with yet. Suddenly it came to her. "Oh, cute little pink rabbits. Damien won't be able to keep his eyes off me."

The person behind her screamed and ran up to her. Before she could do anything about it the man threw some sort of liquid all over. He cackled evilly until he realised she wasn't really that bothered about it.

"Oh... wet catsuit. What a good look!" Annika giggled. With that she skipped off.

Damien could only stare in horror, especially now that she had two ideas to torture him now instead of one. He looked down at the container he had labelled Holy Water, which he then tossed to one side in a fit of rage.

"God damn it! Now I have to wash the episode's smut and the Annika air germs off me!" He stomped off muttering to himself. "This series used to be insane rubbish, now it's just rubbish. I hate this place and everyone in it. Oh and I hate that Tom even more, he's getting too big for his boots. OH And..."

THE END

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