Resistance Is Futile - pt 54

Q/Ian shut out the conversation behind him. He barely registered the fact that the Empress herself had made her presence known. He stilled at the head of Virginia's bed, his heart filled with echos of her pain. She was perilously balanced between life and death, and he knew that her link to him was probably the only thing saving her life.

"I'm here, sweetheart," he said softly, his hands coming to both sides of her head. Closing his eyes, he deepened that link...reaching to her through their Bond.

It was violent, the sensations he had to push through...which he shouldn't have had to do, there should have been no resistance at all...but then he remembered the Borg and how they did things. Not only had they assimilated a drunk Gandraleayian half-breed...but one who was Bonded to another of her kind...one who wasn't drunk. Belatedly he wondered how much of a role he had played in the demise of the Borg. Probably more than he realized, but less than he would have liked. Because he had felt that other Presence as well, and knew He had far more to do with their demise than either he or Virginia. They had both been vessels.

Jars of clay...

Virginia? It had been her thought. There was no doubt in him about that. Q/Ian chased it down like a bloodhound on the scent.

Broken jar...light shines through better...

Her presence met him halfway. Virginia...his thoughts were an intimate whisper.

Help me...

Follow me...Clinging to her presence, feeling her clinging to him with a strength he had forgotten she had, Q/Ian led her back through the miasma of pain left behind by the Borg...

Why is this still here? I don't understand Ian...I felt them die...

I don't know, sweetheart...

*Perhaps we didn't all die quite like you think!* came a third voice, sinister and cruel, its seductiveness long lost.

In this mental netherworld, the Bonded pair had run into the remains of the Borg Queen.

There was stunned silence.

Well...

...isn't this an interesting turn of events?

*Why shouldn't it be? You have a strong body....I think I like it...*

Don't get used to it. The two thought together. Had there been smiles in this world, they would have shared one now. Instead, they shared the feeling that would have went with the smile. The comfort of knowing that they were together, finishing each others thoughts...as 'one' as two people could become and still remain themselves.

Once again minds were pitted against each other. Only this time, the Borg Queen was squaring off against the combined minds of Virginia and Q/Ian...and of course, the God that went with them. It didn't last long. The Queen died quickly and quietly.

I'm confused...Virginia asked in the silence...the painless silence that ensued. Why did she survive our last battle? Why didn't she die with the rest? Why did God...?

Perhaps so that we could win together? Come dear...follow me out...