Back onboard Voyager, the four of us headed to the Briefing Room where Janeway and Tuvok were waiting for us, and I explained what I had done. This, of course, brought on a string of questions from B'Elanna and Harry about my powers. They had been able to detect traces of energy radiating from me, but their tricorders could not make heads or tails of 'what' the energy had been.
It was refreshing to meet people who were excited by my powers instead of fearing them. Of course, there were those in my past life that did not fear me, but I had developed deep relationships with them built on trust. The common citizen of Eden would still have traces of fear when I was near, despite providing for them and protecting them.
After several rounds of twenty questions and promising to allow B'Elanna to send a team to study our ship, I was done for the day. I headed back to our ship where Kate was already cooking dinner. Echo was still training in the Mental Plane and Raven had a tendency to work late, but that had made her B'Elanna's favorite technician as her knowledge was constantly growing and she was able to do more around the ship. This may have been my favorite show, but it was perfect for Raven and her abilities.
"I heard you had a little adventure today," Katye remarked as I walked up and kissed her cheek.
"I guess you could call it that, but it was a lot less exciting than it should have been. I didn't want to test my luck and possibly get pulled into the other dimension instead of Harry," I chuckled. "I was able to deflect a transporter beam which should be helpful for the Spatial Lock spell that I've been struggling to learn."
"Good for you."
"Anything exciting happen to you?"
"Kes and I got to assist the Doctor with a minor surgery. A crewman working in the cargo bay dropped a container on his foot and shattered five bones. It's pretty incredible what technology can do; the Doc did it faster than you could have with your healing spell, and he should be back to work after a day of rest."
"Good, maybe you can pick up a few tricks like Raven did, and I won't be the only healer anymore."
"I'm still a way away from that, but that's the goal. You always seem to be the one who takes the brunt of the damage in fights and assassination attempts... It would be nice if we didn't have to rely on your natural regeneration to let the rest of us know that you will be fine," Katye teased.
"There was only one assassination attempt... Didn't you face more in your time as Heda?" I retorted.
"No one tried to blow me up and throw me into the vacuum of space... If you didn't have your Dusa form, you would have died."
I shrugged and said sarcastically, "Tori made sure that we both had ours long before the Disciples became a problem. A few death scares here and there seem to help us grow. Imagine how hard things will get when we both can heal."
"Joke if you want, but there is a big difference in this 'universe' versus our last. We might still be stronger than the average person, but even your Dusa form can't shrug off a phaser blast like you could a bullet."
"Give me another week or two to figure out Spatial Lock and I'll turn my focus to more needed things; believe it or not, this ability could do a lot for us here."
"I know you want to help, Becca, but you also need to remember Tori warning that our changes affect the world us. Solving simple problems that spring up throughout any given Star Trek show is one thing, but major plotlines can have serious effects. We've seen it before," Katye warned.
"It was a single episode and, if I had been the one pulled through, I would most likely have to die to get back to the ship, and I would not have been as kind as Harry had been to the people with my powers and temper."
"We both know that's not what I'm talking about. I may not have memorized the show as well as you, but I remember the particular traitor who is a major problem when she joins the Kazon," Katye chided.
"Someone is a traitor?" Raven asked, walking up behind us.
Katye's expression turned complicated, and I shot her a smirk since this was the main reason why I had not mentioned it aloud. Changing plotlines had bitten us in the ass a few times in our past lives and, while we managed to make most situations better, we learned that not everything could be avoided.
"Technically, she isn't yet... I don't think so, anyways, which is why I can't just go to Janeway with what I know," I said. "Janeway isn't the type to condemn anyone without solid proof, and this traitor is so sneaky that she causes problems even after her death. If things are managed right, I can make things a lot easier for us in the future for us in the future when we really do need to change things."
"And you were going to fill us in on your genius plan, when? After you acted upon it?" Echo asked, joining the conversation at the best, worst, time.
"I still can't necessarily do my plan yet, so I haven't mentioned it since it would be useless if I can't cast Spatial Lock. If this can't work, it would be better for us to stop her at her next appearance than at her moment of defection," I retorted with a sigh.
"But you were going to keep the information to yourself until you could, and would, act upon that unshared knowledge," Echo accused.
"If the events of the episode started to happen or I could actually cast the Spatial Lock spell, I would have said something, but it's not going to be easy for anyone to work with her and I have no idea 'when' she'll make her move, only that it happens in the first season."
"Convenient."
"Enough, Echo... This isn't about keeping you or Raven out of a fight but making our life on Voyager easier to manage. We aren't leading this time, so we have to stick to the rules and plotlines more than ever. Janeway might be working with us for now, but that can always change if we start acting suspiciously and getting pulled into a mess with the traitor will have lasting effects throughout the years that we'll be here. Can you really say that you'll be able to act exactly the same around her, under the eye of Tuvok especially? You think that Nia's attention to detail and change in behavior was impressive; that's nothing compared to the mind of a Vulcan," Katye sighed. "There is a reason why you were assigned directly under him; you've had your own suspicions."
Raven placed an arm on Echo's shoulder, and she finally gave up the fight that she was so ready to have. Katye had agreed with my decision, probably even would have made it herself, and Raven had understood it, but Echo still did not. There was this bubbling anger between us, mostly on her side, but I was also too proud to admit that I was wrong because I was not. Following us into that final battle would have been death for them, but I also understood her side of it. I would have rather died than live an eternal life without Raven and Echo.
"So, what's your plan?" Raven asked.
"Well, in the original episode, she gets exposed before she flees the ship via a preprogrammed transporter beam sequence. My hope was to be there and stop the transport, maybe help them get access to the smuggled replicator quicker, but I'll have to test whether or not my Dusa form can handle the radiation."
"Seems straight forward enough... what's the catch?" Raven chuckled.
"The catch is that she would lead the Kazon Nistrim to capture Voyager for the season two finale as well as appearing in another episode or two. Removing her from the equation will allow something else to take that place. Iseto is a good example of it; his ability was somewhat similar to A.L.I.E's by turning people to their will and preventing them from feeling pain."
"You realize that you're going to make a new enemy that is meant for us, not Voyager," Katye sighed as she pulled the pot off the stove.
"We're going to have similar problems once we get involved with the war between the Borg and Species 8472 and they will be a problem throughout the rest of the journey, so we might as well get some practice and see how much things will get thrown out of whack with this lesser plotline," I replied.
"Yeah, you have a point. Now, all of you, out of my kitchen and sit down; dinner will be ready in a few minutes," Katye ordered. "We can discuss the details while we eat."
It was almost like we were back in Eden, arguing about the Disciples. All of us knew that there was danger looming on the horizon and, despite knowing that there was little that we could predict what our changes could cause, that had never stopped us before. I ended up explaining most of what I knew about the races of the first two seasons which could become the new problem. The Kazon were the most obvious opponents that we would face, but there were also the Vidiians, the Bothan, the female Caretaker, the Parlor robots, and even multiple Q. There were just too many possibilities for a person to die in Star Trek to have a chance at narrowing things down to a single scenario.
After dinner, Echo went straight back to the Mental Plane which made Katye and I sigh. Katye had tried talking to her about getting her to relax on her training, but it had not worked obviously. I waved Katye and Raven off to bed while I headed for the couches and put on a Mind Linker.
Entering the white 'lobby' of the Mind Linker, I said, "Fae, let me into Echo's Mental Plane."
Fae manifested her body a moment later and replied, "Echo doesn't want you to enter."
"I didn't ask if she wanted me to come in or not; we need to have a talk whether she likes it or not," I growled.
Fae sighed and nodded her head. I walked straight to Echo's door and opened it. Suddenly, I found myself in a forest with a foot of snow on the ground. I looked around trying to find Echo or figure out 'where' I was. Thanks to the partially built giant wall in the background looming above the trees, I knew that we were in the woods surrounding Triot which had been her home.
An arrow came flying out from the trees, aimed at my face, but my instincts kicked in and I dodged it just in time. Unfortunately, what followed it was a 'rain' of arrow-like shards of ice and I had to release a jet of Blue Fire to destroy them before they could hit me. She was not done as I felt a ripple of energy pass through the snow all around me, and it came to life, trying to encase me. Instead of fighting it, I shifted into my Dusa form and let in engulf me, binding me with Ice and snow.
Although my sense could not extend past this prison, I still knew my opponent quite well. As felt the Ice trying to crush me, I waited patiently and unmoving for several minutes then, when it was at the peak of its force, I moved and shattered the entire structure. With a flap of my wings, I launched myself at her since she had come out hiding, but she did not resist even when I grabbed her by the throat.
"Still nowhere near you," was all Echo said.
I let her go and shifted back to my normal human appearance, sighing. "Echo, aside from the fact that I've had twelve years to train my powers, my past life had hundreds of millions of years, billions of years, trillions of years... so many that I can't wrap my head around the number. The gap between us isn't fair for you to try and compare yourself to the current me. In fact, you're probably stronger than I was when we took down Mount Weather. You need to stop beating yourself up already; self-pitying is supposed to be my thing."
She rewarded me with a rare smirk that I had not seen since we had entered Voyager. I placed a hand on her cheek, but she pushed it off almost instantly and walked a little away. I knew things were not easy for her here and a lot of her problems stemmed from my decision to leave her behind when Katye and I took on the Disciples.
"What you are saying is that I'm always going to be useless to you and Katye," Echo complained.
"What I'm saying is that you need to stop comparing yourself to me!"
"But if I can't match you then you'll leave me behind again. I don't want to live being a burden to you and Katye, but that's all I can be with your past lives fueling your strength."
"Believe it or not, neither of us think…"
"Because you love me, you don't think of me like that, but if I was anyone else, you would. Since my childhood, I was raised to be a warrior, a spy, an assassin… to be a weapon. It may be hard for you to accept, but that's what I want to be still. I want to be able to protect you and Katye just like you both have done for me and fight by your side."
"I know, Echo, and I'm not going to stop you again. I'm sorry, but if you or Raven died in front of me, I would have lost control and I probably would have ended up killing everyone. My past life was too powerful, and I can't control it when it wakes up," I sighed, looking away.
Echo walked over to me and turned my head to face her. She ran her fingers over the Soul Burn above my right eye. She had her own scars and regrets of the past, and my mark was the constant reminder of my own. It was a twisted thing that had bonded us together over the years, but the gesture meant that she was willing to finally forgive me.
"You're still an idiot," she said with a smile.
"I prefer 'Stubborn Fool'," I chuckled then leaned in and kissed her which she returned.