Wow! This story is so intense and darkly beautiful, it’s like getting hit by a phaser! The way you built the tension with the vivid descriptions and varying degrees of subtle implications was beyond brilliant. I couldn’t have stopped reading this if I had tried, although I wonder why anybody would not have wanted to finish this story. The mark of a very talented writer is in their ability to hold their audience captive and you did that remarkably well. I hope to read more from you in the future.

Brilliant!
I love it!

SO WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? YOU CAN'T LEAVE IT THIS WAY! YOU ARE CRUEL.

Intense! Really well-written.

Wow. Brilliant.

Oh. My. Holy. Christ. My heart is still pounding and the tears don't seem to want to stop. Gloriously dark and searingly beautiful, I'd try to pick out some favourite phrases but I just love every word. This one will haunt me. Just spectacular.

Here very belatedly because someone pushed Bri's sequel to this up the active topics on VAMB. Can't believe I haven't read this before - predictably and searingly brilliant. Thank you for writing, I'm bowled over.

Riveting. I was completely drawn in and captivated by the detail of the whole scene you depict. And the ending it so absolutely them. Loved it.

Very, very nice. Lots of things were scary in advance, and the untold stuff was the scariest, naturally. I was more afraid, however, that you'd let him waltz out of that hall with her o.o now THAT would be scary!

Incredible story! Very intense! That had to be so hard!

Oh my. I was hoping until the very end that there was some way, any way for it to end other than how it did. But of course there wasn't. And I'm literally fighting tears now... Terribly well written and absolutely heartbreaking.

Wow. I literally let out a breath and whispered "My God" at the end of this.

This is masterful and brilliant.

Everything about these characters is so right: their interactions, their personalities, every little thing is done right.

The character of Xarvon is creepy, vengeful and merciless, much like many unforgettable villians of lore. His words while he tried to take Janeway were haunting and frightening, because of the conviction in his voice. I knew, just by the way you wrote him, that he meant everything he said, and that's the scariest thing about him.

I'll admit it took me a little while to remember Harren, but when I did this pit of dread and shock formed in me, because to break a person with such resolve and calm as Harren... I just can't even imagine. That is one of the most haunting parts about this piece.

The final spiral to the end is a mesmerizing thing that is going to stay with me for a while. The decisiveness of Janeway's decision, Chakotay's own pain at the decision he must make, and the love that flutters through the air around them.

This is full of wonderful images and lines, a few of my favourites being:

"Like broken flesh, fresh stonedust has a sharp scent. Together, they are savory, metallic, familiar."..."and in the span of the heartbeat that never drums in his chest, Chakotay's entire world narrows to the width of a single face, to a pair of glittering blue eyes. From across the room, he can map every detail of her complexion, every mark of so-called imperfection that makes her face unique to human eyes."

"The targeted fury pinches her expression"..."Below Chakotay seethes an ocean of panic, waves of ice-fury are licking past his legs, curling higher around his chest."

"...yet Chakotay's finger is frozen on the trigger of his phaser, his bones brittle ribbons of ice curled around burning warm metal."

"It shouldn't surprise him that this is how she'll meet her end. In control. Giving orders. Fully cognizant of the sacrifice she's making and why she's making it. Never thinking about what that sacrifice will do to those she leaves behind, never questioning the part that comes after. It was always like her to be that way about her own death. In this tortured instant, he both fiercely loves and bitterly hates her for it."

This final one is one fo my favourites, because it encompasses sa many words into just a few: "He tries to tell her with his last gaze; he would gladly have given her everything. Anything but this."

Haunting, beautiful, and true to everything that these characters are. This is one the best fanfics I've ever read.

Keep up the fantastic work, QS.

CP7

I don't know how I missed this when it first came out - just found it on someone's favourite list. And it is going on mine. I had to read it twice, because the first time I found myself galloping through it for the sheer adrenaline-pounding suspense of it. The second time I read it to find the light in the darkness that you always leave us with. It was hard, this time, but then self-sacrifice (here, times two) is a creature of both light and darkness, appreciated more in the abstract than in the heart. Beautifully done.

You sure know how to break someone's heart.

This story is by far one of the most saddest voyager fics I have read in my lifetime. But it is very well writen. If it were not for the skills of the author, this fic wouldn't be the greatness that it is. The characters are well in character, and I believe that they would have acted in this manor if it were an actual episode. Chakotay's care for Janeway is so sweet, and very strong. And the begining, which I know some would think of as spanning too long down the page, was in fact not boring at all.

Thank you for writing this! It's sure to get me teary-eyed every time