Kes to the X Power
by Rob Morris

Well, she thought, at least I beat the 9-year limit. Of course, upon further contemplation, she realized her plans had always included staying in her original body--or for that matter, any body at all.

Staying on Voyager was out. No sense playing poltergeist,frustrating her friends' efforts to get home. Although she couldn't resist causing a blender to malfunction, covering Neelix's face with his new concoction.

"The Snadelian Chocolate Mousse will be delayed, somewhat, folks."

But when the Doctor's matrix shifted to match the "Playboy" program Tom had set up, she knew it was time to go. Besides, if she messed with Be'lanna's engines, her ghostly status would not help her - nothing would.

Wandering back toward Kazon space had NO appeal to her. Her parents and friends were likely dead by now, or would be horrified by what she had become. She also had no desire to run into the Caretaker's unstable companion or her fanatic acolytes.

She had no contact with the universe's higher beings, except for Q. Even then, all they did was briefly "bump shoulders".

"Well, little Kes! Moved up, have we?"
 

That was all she "heard" before the female Q "cleared her throat" and Q hurriedly departed. For all her loneliness,  Kes laughed at the argument that then ensued. But when the infant Q  began to cry, and then was comforted, her laughter faded. She remembered her own never-to-be born progeny, and the absurdity of having Harry Kim for a son-in-law. The wonderful absurdity of the doctor's holo-hair. Tom and Neelix having made their peace, which eventually did happen. She was expanding at a terrible rate, now. She would have to leave this reality she loved so well. Before she did, she sent a message through the void to someone she did not know.

"Take care of them, Aanika."

"I shall."

Janeway turned her head.

"Say something, Seven?"

"I...She said I should take care of you."

"Who did?"

 "I am certain I have no idea."

Tuvok and Neelix exchanged a look. They knew, without knowing,  who gave Seven of Nine the message. Kaidith, Tuvok would say.

In this new reality, she could grow at her own pace, learn as she saw fit. But old habits die hard, and she saw a person in danger. She acted.

The woman was piloting a primitive space shuttle back to an alternate Earth--or more precisely, this woman's version of Earth. Radiation was killing her, though. She was sacrificing her own life to save her friends--as Kes had done. But this woman would die the true death.

Kes was impressed, both by the woman's love for her friends, and by the friends themselves. They were shockingly similar to the people on Voyager. The dying woman's love for one of them, though, was unlike what Kes had felt for either Tom or Neelix. It was for him, more than any other, that this woman gave all.

Kes made an offer to the woman.

"I can help you. I can save them. But I'll have to do it my way. Will you accept this--for him?"

"Lady, to save him, I'd deal with the devil himself!"

"Let's hope I don't come to that."

Kes then placed the woman in a healing cocoon. As she guided the shuttle back, she formed a new body for the woman to inhabit. But then, as the shuttle set down in the Hudson River outside New York City, Kes did something she would regret.

This woman's love for and love from this man was something she wanted badly. So badly, she was willing to almost kill for it. She kept the woman in the cocoon, to heal, but did not transpose her spirit into the duplicate. Instead, she inhabited it herself. The glory of this woman's passion made her ecstatic; The guilt over stealing her life, even for a time, caused her to go into denial. She hadn't stolen anything; She was the woman, merely transformed. Radically transformed. Ultimately transformed.

The woman's friends, now her friends, waited on the surface, fearing the worst. Her life was now subsumed by this woman, and her love for this man. Eventually, Kes would return, and even go back to her home universe. For now, though, she was on the cusp of a new adventure. Rising from the water, she wanted to tell her friends that she was fine. But this was too much of a lie, so she shaded the truth which she hid even from herself. As she rose, the man who loved her-or thought he did-looked up in shock. They all did. She said a few, simple words to these extraordinary people, before collapsing from exhaustion. For good or ill, she was quite reborn.

"Forgive me, X-Men! For I am no longer the woman you knew! Now, and Forever, I AM PHOENIX!"

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Writer's note : No crossover intended, just a lark before I write the epilogue to AfterMASH/DS9 - Rob