A/N Well this is the last chapter that will also serve as this story's epilogue. I hoped you enjoyed the ride and I'm sorry it took so long to post this. The bit and pieces about Neelix and Odo was like that because I actually intended to write several more chapters to cover their characters, but I had to move on with other things in my life and I decided to skip them all together and just focus on ending this fic. But I wanted an issue with them to be resolved nonetheless. The same thing goes with the Hansens. If they didn't stay in the Delta Quadrant to watch over the Borg, who else was going to do it that could be trusted? Also there is going to be some talk about God in here and it's not meant to be taken literally for anybody in here that's religious. It's just some stuff that I made up.
Chapter 69
Into The Hands Of The Prophets
"Q!" Kira growled out angrily as she walked towards the self proclaimed omnipotent being.
"The one and only... Ow!" Q shouted as Kira punched him hard in the face. "Why did you do that?"
"Because my fist needed to have a meeting with your face." Kira replied, happy with herself and making even the Borg baby that she was holding softly coo.
"Mom." Tabrin whined as she got in between the two. "Now's not the time for this." she said as she looked down at the baby her mother was holding. "May, I?" she asked as Kira handed the baby over to her, making the baby smile. As Tabrin started to walk around with the baby, she smiled herself as she looked up from her smiling face and looked towards Chakotay and Seven. "You know this baby is really special and the last of her species. She has a destiny of her own and she's really going to need a good home. I can't think of a better couple that should adopt her."
As Tabrin handed the baby over to Chakotay, Chakotay's eyes widened as he saw that her Borg implants were gone. Looking down at his own hands, he gasped as he saw that the Borg tech that was attached to his hand wasn't there. Looking over to Seven his eyes went even wider as he saw that all of her implants were also gone. Judging by the way she was looking at him, he knew that the same must have happened to him. Chancing a glance towards Tabrin, they saw that the Bajoran woman was smiling at them.
"I can't take away all the guilt that you two feel from your time as Borg drones, but I can take away the physical harm that they did." Tabrin explained. "The three of you are free now. Totally free. Just promise me that you'll take this new chance that you were given and live. Live for me and for... little baby Meru." she added as she gave Kira a nod.
"You... you act as if you're not coming with us." Seven stated as she finally found her voice. Her sister was right, she did feel free.
"I'll let Q explain that later." Tabrin replied as she moved on and started to walk towards her Grandfather, who was staring at Sarah, and her brother. "I'm sorry I can't be with you to listen to all of the wisdom you have to give, but I wanted you to know that I love you anyway and that now you have a whole new generation of children to teach." With that said to her Grandfather, she hugged Joseph and looked to Jake. "And I'm sorry that I won't be around so we can annoy each other... I... oh what the heck." she said as she leaned over and kissed her brother on the cheek.
"Aww man..." Jake whined, rubbing at his face, as Tabrin chuckled and moved on.
Walking towards Tuvok, she reached up to tug at his ear. For a moment it seemed as if she were five years old again. "You'll never know how much I'll miss doing that." she said as Tuvok grabbed her hand. "I wanted to say thank you, Tuvok. In the universe I come from you taught me so much. I lost you in that dimension but I'm glad that we had time to spend together again. I'm really going to miss you."
"And I you Counselor." Tuvok replied as she gave him a hug. With a raised eyebrow, Tuvok returned it.
Moving on, Tabrin smiled as she looked up at her Aunt Dax. "Aunt Jadzia, I know you don't have any memories of this, but you taught me so much about life and helped me to grow into womanhood. I don't know how I'll ever repay you for that but for now, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for holding me at night when I was scared as a child and thank you for always being there to listen to me." Giving her a quick hug, she moved on to Andrea. "I'm sorry that we didn't have time to become as good of friends like I wanted, but I know that in another time and place that we would have been best friends. I also wanted you to know that you have a good man in Neelix. Just be there for each other."
Her advice given she hugged and thanked Neelix, before she frowned a little as she walked past him and looked up at Odo.
"I know what you're planning on doing." Odo started as Rebi and Azan hid behind his legs. "But I don't want to become human."
"And I wasn't going to make you into one." Tabrin replied sternly. "I wanted to give you some advice. You and Aunt Jadzia adopted these boys and they're going to look up to you on how to become men and how to deal with friendship. Well Neelix is a good man and time and time again you've pushed him away when he's tried to help you. What kind of message do you think you're sending to these boys?"
"I guess..., I guess I never thought about it like that." Odo considered.
"Well you should start thinking about it." Tabrin went on. "In my dimension Neelix taught me how to read and write and you don't treat good natured people like that so poorly. Odo, I know what your father Dr. Mora did to you, but every solid isn't the same way. Especially not Neelix. In this world you can't survive alone and you're really going to need friends to have your back. Believe me with the stuff that's about to come into your life, you're really going to need a shoulder to lean on every now and again." Giving Odo some food for thought, she moved on to Tom and Harry. "You miss me flyboy?" she asked as she gave Tom a hug.
"Everyday." Tom admitted as he returned, said hug.
"I just wanted to say that, I've been watching you." Tabrin started as she looked from Tom to Harry. "The both of you. You've really grown up a lot Tom and I can tell that you two are going to be best friends for life and that you really help balance each other out. Tom helps you to see that life doesn't have to be so serious all the time and Harry helps you to see that there is still seriousness in it. That's rare to find and I wish both of you a happy journey." she said as she moved on to B'Elanna.
"Why do I feel like this is goodbye?" B'Elanna asked with a sad smile.
"Believe me it's not." Tabrin replied as she pulled the half Klingon engineer into a hug and started to whisper into her hair. "In a couple of days Tom is going to ask you a very important question. Don't be stubborn and say yes to him and you'll never regret it." Before B'Elanna could reply, she moved down to Dr. Erin. "I never got a chance to say thank you for saving my life when I first crossed over from my dimension."
"Not to worry, I was only doing my job." Erin replied still glad that she could be of help.
"Hey kid, you listen to your mom." Tabrin said as she looked down to Mezoti. Erin didn't know it yet, but Tabrin had fused her program together with her mobile emitter, so she didn't have to worry about her program ever getting lost. "She's a smart lady with a lot to give." 'Speaking of giving.' she thought to herself as Julian walked over to her. "Your time as the holder of the light is over Doctor Bashir. It's time for you to go back with them."
"Yes, Emissary." Doctor Bashir replied as he handed the lantern with the blue flame over to her. As he did, Julian's hand shot up to his head and he wobbled around for a second dizzily.
"Julian?" Dax asked as she held on to his arm to keep him from falling over.
"Jadzia?" Julian asked back as he looked at her and smiled, before looking at his surroundings. "Where are we? What's going on?"
"You'll remember everything in a little while, Doc." Tabrin informed him.
"I saw Dr. Bashir die." Seven said as she looked down at the both of them. 'Does she have the power over life and death?' she asked herself.
"You saw what, I wanted you to see." Q spoke up, making everyone look over at him. "Come now, did you really think that a creature from one of your primitive Earth movies was actually real?" he asked as he considered that. "Well, in this dimension anyway. What you call the Prophets requested a human to act as an avatar for their power until Tabrin could be brought here. So I switched the good doctor with a doppelganger and brought him here. It's not like he had anything better to do anyway. Now enough of this family reunion, some of us have more important things to do."
'All of that guilt I felt over Dr. Bashir's death was for nothing.' Seven thought to herself, as Julian stood beside her. 'Was I just a pawn in Q's sick game or was he just using this as a way of pushing me closer to humanity?'
"Alright Q, I've had enough of this crap." Kira spat out. "Why did you bring us here and why is my daughter so important to you?"
"Ah, a fiesty one." Q replied as he rubbed at his jaw and looked to Sisko. "You married well, Benjamin."
"Q!" Sisko growled out.
"Fine." Q replied with a roll of his eyes. "Some years ago when I first met Jean Luc, I told him that mankind was on trial."
"When Picard and I... formally met he told me about that." Sisko replied as he crossed his arms over his chest, thinking back to when he and Picard drank in his office at the Shipyards. "But he never figured out what the trial was really about."
"That's because you humans don't have much of an imagination." Q went on. "You see the trial on mankind has been going on far longer than any of you realize. The Q Continuum has actually been watching all of the species in the Alpha Quadrant and sometimes we even posed as important figures or Gods in their culture. Like Kahless or The Blessed Exchequer from Ferenginar. We even posed as your old Earth God Jehovah."
"Q... are you telling me that you're God?" Ben asked as he shared a look with his father and a few other humans in the crowd. He'd always personally believed that there was no God, but what had happened in the last few years with the Prophets had caused him to doubt that and from what Q was now telling him...
"Of course not." Q replied making Ben and Joseph sigh in relief. "That was another Q. But I did tease him from time to time. The locals of that time even gave me little pet names. My favorite was Beelzebub." Before Ben could argue with him, Q continued. "As the Q began to change overtime we didn't want to totally lose all of what we once were, so we used another race called the Progenitors or as you might know them as the Preservers to spread our DNA code to different planets to help create more lifeforms, which is the reason why so many in the Alpha Quadrant look humanoid. Many believe that the Preservers seeded all those planets with their own DNA but that simply isn't true. They were doing what we asked of them. When those species started to evolve we tested them once we became Godlike but humans were the only ones that had potential of one day becoming Q like beings. So there you have it Benjy." Q said at Ben's startled look. "That's the reason why your race is on trial, why we've influenced your culture, and why we've been watching you. It's because we believe that one day you can become like us."
"So Tabrin..." Ben started as he found his voice.
"Still isn't ready yet." Q said cutting him off. "But the Prophets are ready. They've been here for eons watching, understanding and now it's time for them to leave the celestial temple and join us. The problem is they can't leave without the next species being here to take their place."
"That's why, I was born dad." Tabrin spoke up. "That's what Kai Opaka meant when she said that Bajor would be protected by another one under the blood of the Sisko..." She paused to look directly at her mother, "...and that you would give birth to a new Bajor."
"I have to admit that I had my doubts about you humans." Q went on. "I just simply didn't believe that your species was ready and could handle the job as being protectors but all throughout time your Federation's have defended themselves and even strangers from different lands and planets. And I've tested all of the great Starfleet Captain's throughout time like Jonathan Archer, Picard, Janeway and my personal favorite Captain Kirk, although I didn't have to test him much because he got in trouble all by himself. But the person that made me change my mind about humans was you Benjy. I made sure that certain obstacles, like Seven and being in the Delta Quadrant, were put in your way and you still kept fighting. The only problem was there was a missing element that wouldn't allow you to cross over to Q hood before the Prophets had to leave. There wasn't going to be anyone to stand for humanity, for Bajor, and for the Alpha Quadrant which is why I made sure that Tabrin would be born by spiking your drinks on planet Asir."
"You did that?" Kira hissed with wide eyes. Calming herself, she had to remember that she was in love with Ben and that she got a beautiful daughter out of it.
"Yes, I did, but I didn't count on Seska killing her." Q replied as he started to pace. He had to admit that he had high hopes for Ben to somehow reform Seska, but it seemed that that woman was evil in almost every dimension. "So, I had to again take matters into my own hands and open a gateway to another dimension where Tabrin was born and of age to handle this job."
"Just as the Sisko had to do in another time and place, the child of Bajor must sacrifice and remain." Sarah said, making everyone even more confused then what they were.
"Until mankind is ready to come out of it's infancy and join the Continuum, Tabrin will remain here as a guardian over mankind." Q explained.
"How long is that going to take?" Jadzia asked.
"Month's, years, possibly... eons." Q replied with a smile as he placed his arms over his chest.
As there was a clamoring in the temple over Q's announcement, Tabrin raised her arms to quiet down everyone. "It's alright." Tabrin said at everyone's downcast look. "This is what I was literally born to do. It might take a long time to do it in but it's my job now."
Noticing someone watching him, Adam looked over at Chakotay before walking over to him. Possibly reading his mind, Adam merely raised his eyebrow before speaking to him.
"I know what you did to my people and I wanted you to know that I forgive you." Adam started. "It feels like, I've been here for a long time, but in that time I was able to see and feel what was done to your people on Earth and Dorvan V. I know now that you were made to do what you did and I don't want you living with that guilt in your heart."
"Thank you." Chakotay replied after a few moments. Adam had no idea what that meant to him. Seeing that Tabrin started back talking, Chakotay tuned in to what she was saying.
"I just wanted all of you to know that I'll always be here watching you and in my own way rooting you all on in the things that you choose to do." Tabrin started as she looked to her family. "And if you ever need me, all you have to do is call my name." as she said that everyone in the room started to disappear until only Ben and Seven were left in the room. Giving them one last smile, Tabrin held up her lantern before she spoke to him. "Hey dad just remember one thing. I'm here." she said as she blew out the light and her sister and father disappeared from the room.
Six Years Later
Kotay Residence
"And then what happened, Uncle Jake?" Meru asked as she stared up at her uncle. She was a pretty little girl with long curly blond hair and light purple eyes.
"And then your mom and dad got married and had your little sister Josephine." Jake answered as he let out a yawn and looked down at his other niece. She was a perfect combination of Chakotay and Annika with long black hair, tanned skin like Chakotay's and blue eyes. She was born a year after Chakotay and Annika made it back to Earth and her full name was, much to their Grandfather's delight, Josephine Sekaya Kotay.
"But what happened to everyone else?" Alixia asked. She was the daughter of Andrea and Neelix and she looked mostly human except for her weird spiky brown hair, pointed teeth, bronze colored skin, six toes on each foot, and the spots that lined her body.
"Well my dad became an Admiral." Jake started as he thought about what happened to everyone else. "Kira, Ro, my mom, Dr. Bashir, Chief O'Brien, Odo, and Dax are running DS9. The Doctor is still in the Delta Quadrant and I think he's calling himself Joe. Anyway the Hansens are still there with him. Because of all of the knowledge she learned from the Vidiian's, Dr. Erin is head over Starfleet medical. Chakotay is the Captain of the Ares and Tom is serving as his first officer. Harry is a lieutenant now and the OPS officer on the Ares, Icheb is at the Helm, and B'Elanna is still that ships Chief Engineer. My sister is a Lt. Commander and works for Starfleet Command. And your mom and dad are at Starfleet Academy training a new group of potential MACO team members to be deployed on different ships."
"Do you really expect us to believe any of that?" Miral asked in a huff as she crossed her arms over her little chest.
"Hey all of it is true... I swear." Jake replied, trying to defend himself. Before he could say anything else there was a knock on the door. Looking up he saw his big sister Annika as she walked into the room.
"Dinner will be ready in..."
"Mom, is it true that you used to be called Seven?" Meru asked, making Annika turn and look at her little brother, who smiled despite her glaring look.
"Yes baby, I was." Annika answered as she turned to her eldest daughter. There had been a big change in her personality when she settled into a normal life in the Alpha Quadrant and she didn't feel like Seven anymore, so she wanted to see who Annika was and what she could become. "But that was a long time ago and I was a different person back then."
"I knew it!" Meru yelled as she turned to her best friend Miral. "I told you my uncle was telling the truth with his stories."
"And just what stories have you been telling them?" Annika asked as Jake walked towards her.
"Hey you told me to keep them entertained while you were cooking and getting everything ready." Jake replied as he hunched up his shoulders. "I couldn't think up anything better then telling them about your adventures in the Delta Quadrant."
Not really being mad with her brother, Annika smiled and softly touched his cheek. "Thank you for coming."
"There was no way I was going to miss my niece's birthday." Jake replied as he took her hand in his. "So what about Chakotay? How far is he from..."
"The Ares was on a mission in deep space but he should be here by tomorrow morning." Annika answered. "Now come with me. Dad and Grandpa are here and we need to finish getting everything ready."
"Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes birthday girl." Jake said to Meru as he and Annika walked out of the room, to let the girls get back to their slumber party.
"I don't care what they say." Miral said as she got off of the bed and started to look around the room. "I don't believe all of that stuff happened to our parents."
"If my Uncle and my Mommy say it happened then it happened." Little Josephine spoke up.
"Whatever you say Josie." Miral replied with a roll of her eyes. "Hey what's this?" she asked as she saw a gray and gold box with intricate markings and large green stones sitting on the floor in a corner of the room.
"My Grandpa gave that to me for my birthday." Meru said as she sat up in alarm. "He told me that he would teach me how to use it, so please don't touch it."
"Is this supposed to be that stupid box your Uncle told us about in his story?" Miral asked in another huff. Ignoring Meru's warning, Miral ripped the special bonds off of the box and opened it up only for a bright white light to shine on all four of them. With a smile, Miral closed the box because nothing happened. "See, I told you that it was just a stupid..." she stopped talking as she saw four people standing behind her friends. Two of them were clearly Cardassian a male and a female but the other two were from a species she couldn't identify but they too were a male and a female.
"Finally we were released by an unbeliever." the Cardassian male said with a dark smile, making the little girls jump in fright, Josie screaming before she knew of any danger. "That's right, scream for me. Your precious mommies and daddies can't hear you, and believe me they wouldn't be able to help you anyway."
Turning they started to shake with fear as they saw the four beings standing behind them. Knowing that Miral was the strongest in their group, they all ran and hid behind her.
"Who... who are you?" Miral asked, shakily, but still trying not to show how scared she was in front of her friends.
"Take your wildest guess who I am." the Cardassian replied, his smile deepening. "I was in that little story you were told."
"You're... you're Dukat aren't you?" Meru asked, as she held her scared sister closer to her.
"Did you hear that Seska?" Dukat asked as he turned to look at the woman. "She got it right on the first try."
Turning from Dukat and Seska, Meru looked to the others. "And you're Sivok and you're..."
"The Queen of the Borg." the Queen told her with a smile.
"How... how did you get here?" Alixia asked, nervously as they all turned to look at her. "Jake told us you were dead."
"Ah, the inquisitive one." Dukat started. "We are dead and let's just say that on my journey, I found a new way to come back to this life besides in people's dreams."
"The orb." Meru realized with wide eyes.
"That's right the orb." Dukat told her. "The one thing that Benjamin forgot all about and thought was harmless enough to give his Granddaughter. Just like the Pah Wraiths have done in the past, my friends and I hid in it, hoping that one day an unbeliever would open it." he said as Dukat's group looked to Miral.
"Thanks to you kid, in a minute we're going to be set free." Seska spoke up.
"Bu... but aren't you already free?" Alixia asked.
"Not quite." Sivok answered. "In order for us to stay in this world we need souls."
"Souls that you four girls possess." Dukat continued. "Thanks to all of the knowledge of the races that the Queen had assimilated we now know of a ritual that will allow us to take your souls and live again."
As Dukat said that, he and his group stood in a circle and started to chant. Seeing that they were being blocked from running towards the door or from calling for help, the girls huddled together scared for their lives.
"What are we going to do?" Alixia asked as she stared at all the girls, stopping as she saw that Meru's eyes had turned white.
"They say I don't belong here that my intentions are cruel and unjust." Meru started as she stood to her feet. Hearing her speak, Dukat turned around and stared at her. "They claim that I break bread with sinners and I run with thieves. But the water is just fine. Come on in."
"No!" Dukat yelled as he broke the circle and ran forward to stop her from talking. As he made it to her someone blocked his way. Looking up he saw that it was Tabrin. The one person he knew of that could destroy his soul and the others forever.
"I'm here." Tabrin said as she blew out the light from her lantern.
A/N I wanted to say thank you to everyone that helped support this fic and stayed a loyal reader. I also wanted to give a special thanks to my one and only beautiful beta Scifiromance. Without her I never would have done this fanfic. This fic was about forgiveness, moving on, and very much about the journey. Now about Q. I got into a long debate with a friend of mine about what he is and he said that Q is a God plain and simple. Then I brought up that episode on Voyager when they found that Q in an asteroid that they later named Quinn who said and I quote "You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to life-forms without your technical expertise. It's no different with us. We may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not." So my belief is that they were one of the first races in existence and they evolved far faster then everyone else until they became what they are now. I'm also going by dialogue from what Q said in an episode of TNG called Hide and Go Q when he says that although humanity is of interest to the Q because of our long-term potential, humans may some day be like the Q. Here's more proof from dialogue from the same episode.
Q: At Farpoint we saw you as savages only. We discovered instead that you are unusual creatures in your own limited ways. Ways which in time will not be so limited.
RIKER: We're growing. Something about us compels us to learn, explore.
Q: Yes, the human compulsion. And unfortunately for us, it is a power which will grow stronger century after century, eon after eon.
RIKER: Eons. Have you any idea how far we'll advance?
Q: Perhaps in a future that you cannot yet conceive, even beyond us.
So that's basically my evidence and what Q was talking about in this fic. When he's mentioning certain things he's also referencing certain things in the original timeline like when he's talking about Janeway.
If this is truly going to be my last fic, (I'm only planning on posting some chapters from my other fics that I never posted to finish them off) I wanted to give the people who sent me pm's about writing some advice, author to author or author to potential author.
My advice is to stay original and don't limit yourself or your writing based on what someone else has done. All of you have to remember that we're not Gene Roddenberry or anybody that wrote or directed for Star Trek or any other realm or genre you're writing from and that gives us a lot of flexibility with our writing since this is only fanfic. I've gotten several complaints for this story asking why I didn't do the same thing another author did in their story or why I didn't make a character the same way they were in everyone else's fic and the short answer to those questions is this. I didn't want to be boring and predictable. It's boring to do the same thing everyone else did and it doesn't allow a person to be very creative. Just try to do something different, give it a lot of thought and write it in a way to make it make sense. There's been tons of stories on here that I wanted to get behind but they were just written like every other story, I've read and it bothered me that no one wanted to do their own thing and be a little unorthodox. That's just my writing style to write things that other people don't think about.
That was until I read Scifiromance's story The Gift. It was completely original, made sense, and stuck out amongst a lot of other stories, I've read. When I was reading her story it really woke something up inside of me and inspired me to get back to writing even if it was for a brief time. Either way you slice it, thanks for your support and if you had a problem understanding something or something just went completely over your head about this fic just send me a pm, and I'll do my best to explain it.
I also wanted to answer a few questions that I received too. My top ten chapters for me to write in this fic and not in any particular order were:
1. Let Me In. It was the first time Seven finally dropped her guard with someone and it was the start for her building a beautiful sibling relationship with Jake.
2. Of Bonding and Assimilation. Because Seven started to relax a little more and want to be in a family and it was the start of her getting advice from Joseph.
3. 15 Miles in the sun pt. 2. Because Seven and Ben really started a father and daughter relationship here and Chakotay showed how much he cared for Seven by going after her and risking his life to save her.
4. Sisko's Pimp Hand because well, even I had to admit it was a kick ass chapter that I wrote. Not only because of the fight scene but because it explained why they couldn't use the array to get home.
5. It's a tie between the chapters Of vision's and tattoo's and Body Parts.
6. We are MACO. I loved the action sequence I put together and it was one of my first steps of putting Tom into a more authoritative light. Here's a fun fact. I was originally going to do the episode Tuvix, but instead of putting Tuvok and Neelix together I was going to put Tuvok and Ben together. Their personalities were going to clash and it was going to make them into an evil character named Sivok. At the last minute I scrapped that idea and I made Two days and two nights and We Are MACO. I still wanted to somehow use Sivok so I made him a separate entity and used his character as a main villain for those chapters.
7. Dying Light because I reintroduced my original character Tabrin. She was actually supposed to be a part of an original story that I was going to write but I just ended up making her a part of this story because I decided not to do that story. Andrea and a few others would have been in the story as well as a few others. Even though I didn't do that story I still used a lot of themes from it.
8. In Her Father's Chair. This was actually going to be another story all together called In His Father's Chair about Jake Sisko taking command of the Defiant on the episode of DS9 called Call to Arms. That is for people who watched DS9 on here. Basically Jake was going to leave on the Defiant with his dad, instead of staying on DS9, and the Defiant was going to be fired upon and Ben was going to get hurt, so Jake takes command of the ship. I lost interest in writing that, so I just slightly changed the name and used the theme from that story. A Moment in Hell/For the Uniform/ and Fall From Olympus are also honorable mentions.
9. Fair Trade. I wasn't even sure I was even going to like that chapter until I had the thought of using Guinan's Uncle Terkim be the one to buy Seven. I actually was going to have Guinan meet Seven in the chapter Don't know how we got here, but I forgot all about adding her in and when I remembered it was too late and I had already posted the chapter. I'm glad I did forget because I liked the scene I came up with where Seven gave Guinan the necklace Terkim had left for his niece.
10. To The Depths of Hades