Disclaimer: No, these characters are not mine. What ever made you think they were??? They belong to "*U.E.*" or what you would call Paramount Pictures. They own the whole freaking universe, you see. Check! Read the fine print of all the ads for the entertainment industry! Who owns them??? Viacom…

Oh, and dear legal eagles…this one is not yours. I won't give you any more of my stories until you take the hints they give you and DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS.

Author's Note:

(I'll make it short.) This is a prequel. To what? You get to guess…but I'll tell you…eventually…

My eternal thanks to my friends, especially Ell and Hex who were there when I needed an identity for and a motive behind the ultimate evil…

By: Alyssa Powell

Chapter 1 --Destinies Confused--

Dr. Beverly Crusher stared blankly out into space. Sickbay was remarkably quiet, nothing in particular to do.

Which only provided time for her mind to wander, and not necessarily to something she wanted to think about.

She thought of Jean-Luc Picard, and her new relationship with him. She had taken a huge step to do this, and she wondered now if she hadn't jumped out too far. She did love him, but-

A voice interrupted her thoughts.

Beverly turned from the viewport and looked into the youthful face of Lt. Alyssa Ogawa, her Head Nurse. She smiled at the sight.

"Yes, Alyssa?"

The young nurse walked slowly forward. "Are you all right?" she asked.

Beverly smiled warmly at her friend. "Yes Alyssa. I was just . . .thinking about something. I'm fine."

Alyssa seemed less than convinced, but knew better than to call the doctor down on it. She simply nodded and left.

Beverly looked at the chronometer. "1654. Shift ends in six minutes." She sat and thought about what lay ahead of her. She enjoyed Jean-Luc's company, but she had been so pensive lately that he was beginning to worry. She didn't know how she could face him like this.

Just then, the computer bleeped.

"All Senior officers, report to the Observation Lounge."

Saved. A lease of temporary freedom.

She let out a long "Whheeeeeeeeeewwwwww . . . . ."

Beverly walked through the doors of the observation lounge only to find that everyone else was already there. Jean-Luc Picard smiled at her as she walked in. She tried to produce a convincing replica of the look on his face.

Beverly took her seat.

"I have called this emergency meeting because we just received a message from Starfleet changing our current orders. Four days ago, the U. S. S. Intrepid disappeared. We are to head to the Torellis System, their last known location, and begin a search effort."

Will turned toward Picard and voiced his questions. "Sir, why did you call an emergency meeting if this is a search and rescue mission that really won't begin for two days anyway?"

"The Intrepid, according to Starfleet, was recently fitted with an experimental subspace amplifier, which provides a very strong distress beacon that can be detected from the edge of the Gamma Quadrant three days after it was sent. It's Starfleet's theory that they have either been destroyed or the amplifier malfunctioned and got them into their current predicament. Other options are possible, but the Intrepid was too close to Deep Space Nine for it to have been intercepted by Cardassians or anything else, and any anomalies would have been detected by DS9's sensor grid. They want to be extremely careful about this."

"Am I to assume we will be in contact with DS9 during this investigation?"

"Yes, Mr. Data. Lieutenant Commander Worf and Constable Odo have already begun the investigation. Worf will join us for a few days while we are performing scans and searching the Torrellis System."

"Well, at least it won't be boring." Geordi chimed in. "Any mission with Worf on it…"

A low chuckle rose from the table. Worf. How they missed his company, or rather, his lack thereof. The burly, quietly aggressive Klingon had been invaluable on the Enterprise-D. His presence was greatly missed here. But the crew knew him well enough to find humor in his actions and still love the person.

All except poor Lieutenant Hawk, his "replacement." The poor man was clueless as to why they would be laughing at a Klingon…

"Well," Picard started, "if that is all, I believe we have an investigation to start. Dismissed."

The entire company rose to leave, but Picard stopped Beverly as she walked out.

"Beverly, what's wrong? You were tense throughout the briefing."

She hated to lie to him, but how could she tell him the truth? 'I'm not sure about our relationship, Jean-Luc. I'm having trouble with all this, Jean-Luc'…it would crush him.

She opted for half truth.

"I'm…fine, Jean-Luc…just a bit…um…worried about the crew of the Intrepid. That's all."

He nodded his head. "All right…if you--"

He was stopped by a sudden flash of light. He already knew what it was a he turned to face it, and it was all Beverly could do to bite down a curse.

Their next words were spoken in unison.

"Q."

Chapter 2 --Search and Res-Q—

"Nice to see you too, Mon Capitane."

Jean-Luc left Beverly's side and walked up to Q. "I am in no mood for your games, Q. Get off my ship."

"Or what?" he laughed back. "You'll throw me out? Oh, I could leave if I wanted to, and I do want to, but the continuum has given me no choice."

"You always have a choice. You're Q."

"No, dear doctor, I do not." As he spoke, he paced the length of the conference room. "You see, they are holding me here, and as hard as I may try, they will not let me go. Believe me, I've tried. They simply will not allow me to leave."

Jean-Luc, apparently, did not believe him, either. "And why are you being held here, Q? Have you been punished again?"

"In a way. I've been assigned to protect your ship."

The shock was only momentary, before they both realized that he was probably teasing again.

"Why would we need your protection, Q?"

His tone suddenly got very low, and the intensity of it made a shiver run down Beverly's spine. "Because you don't know what you're up against…you can never truly understand."

Jean-Luc took thirty seconds to respond, and even then, it was more of a squeak. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that ship wasn't destroyed by any natural occurrence. It was destroyed by a rogue entity of immense power. The Galactic royal queen bitch I call 'her Majesty.'"

"Wait a minute," Beverly broke in. "You mean to tell us you actually have to answer to someone???"

"Yes, yes, I do, okay? Myself and the entire Q Continuum. She's the ultimate power…but, as they say, power corrupts. She's transformed into the ultimate evil…and now she's after the Founders. They forced her out of her place in the Gamma Quadrant and now she's after them again--"

"If she's so all-powerful, why doesn't she just wipe them away?"

"Because it's no fun. For an entity, she's remarkably ins--"

And again that day, shock was predominant in their minds, because Q had suddenly popped out…no flash of light, no fantastic farewell…

He had just…vanished.

Chapter Three ---The Dark Side of Nature---

Their voyage to the vicinity of the disappearance was relatively quiet. They had picked Worf up on the way, and were now nearing the last known coordinates of the USS Intrepid.

Q had kept his distance for the length of the voyage, and the senior staff had been too busy in their departments to do anything.

For Beverly, that included sleep.

It happened the night they arrived. It wasn't discovered until the next morning.

A young medical ensign killed, the life seeming to have been sucked out of him. But it was obviously a murder. The killer left a calling card…literally. U.E. was written in what was later determined as the victim's own blood on a paper card.

"I don't understand it…do we have a serial killer on our ship?"

Worf growled at the implication. "No. It is not possible."

"Obviously it is. We have a murder and no suspect, what would you make of that?"

Jean-Luc paid no attention to the conversation, thinking only of that little meeting with Q earlier that week…

*"I mean that ship wasn't destroyed by any natural occurrence. It was destroyed by a rogue entity of immense power. The Galactic royal queen bitch I call 'her Majesty.'"*

"Captain? Captain, are you all right?"

He snapped out of his memories easily at the sound of his name. "Yes?"

Will looked concerned as his senior officer came back into reality, but was not about to ask. "I was wondering if you were ready to order a full investiga--"

"Security to Lt. Hawk and Commander Worf."

They were puzzled, but to their credit, they did not waste time in responding. "Go ahead."

"Sirs, you'd better get down here…there's been another murder."

The readings didn't make any sense. Three crew members were now dead, and Beverly was left the task of figuring out how it happened.

That was the odd thing. It didn't make sense.

"How can three perfectly healthy ensigns just die?"

And the calling card…what did it mean? Why would a killer leave such a clue?

The scanner beeped as it discovered something. Beverly immediately went to the display.

And gawked at what she saw.

"Alpha waves…? Where in the Hell did these ensigns come in contact with alpha waves when they were native only to…*space-faring beings…*

*"She's the ultimate power…but, as they say, power corrupts. She's transformed into the ultimate evil…and now she's after the Founders."*

That was it…U. E.: The Ultimate Evil. She was *here.* On *this* ship…

Without knowing it, Beverly Crusher had just placed herself on that list of the dead…

*You cannot possibly mean to kill her. She is an instrumental part of Jean-Luc Picard's sanity--*

*Oh, stuff your chatter. I must eliminate her, or she will ruin my plans.*

Q was bound by force, and unable to move. All he could do was watch as she wreaked havoc playing with *his* toy!

*Just because you're all powerful doesn't make you right. You cannot kill Beverly Crusher.*

The queen smiled sweetly at Q as she began to fade. *Ah, Mon Amour, you have no idea the power I possess…until the finale…*

And with that, she vanished.

How utterly revolting. The very thought that *he* would even be interested…blech! Q was irritated, an accomplishment for someone above human emotion.

*I have to warn them….but how?*

Then, in true Q form, he got a wonderfully evil idea…

Chapter 4 ---No Escape---

Jean-Luc sat pensively at his desk in his quarters. How could things get so out of hand on HIS ship? It was partially his fault that those three crewmen were dead now…somewhere, his careful planning and excellent security faltered, and the blame was his and his alone. Somewhere, he had failed in his duty.

He was so utterly lost n his self-criticizing tirade that h almost didn't notice the faint glow from the corner of the room. When he did, he turned to look at the blur…

…only to see Q, faintly, looking strained from his efforts. He turned to Jean-Luc with a pained expression.

"Danger…she's in danger…"

"Who's in danger? What's wrong with you? What games are you playing now? Answer me, Q!"

His words were already out of his mouth, but he knew In that moment what Q was talking about. He'd known it…he couldn't explain how…and even as Q mouthed the name "Beverly," he knew what was happening.

"I can't stay…She's here…you must help Beverly…"

Jean-Luc never saw Q leave.

Deep in the bowels of another plane, Q smiled. "Well," he thought, "not the nicest way of warning the simpleton, but it'll do." Then he phased out again, deciding that, just this once, it might be interesting to see how the human would handle this.

He barreled down the corridor, slamming into more than one unfortunate ensign, dove into the turbolift and shouted for deck 16. The turbolift ride seemed endless as, with each passing second, a seething, growing evil welled up, becoming increasingly thicker as he journeyed downward.

When the doors opened, it felt as if his heart had been pounded.

It took him a few seconds to focus, but when he did, he saw Beverly, on the other side of sickbay, crawling and clawing her way to the wall. Looming above her was a huge energy cloud…

She collapsed to the floor, and a blue light began to rise from her body. It was her soul…and somehow, Picard knew it. A low rumble of laughter emanated from the repulsive yellow cloud, distinctly female, yet manic in tone…

"NO!!!!"

At once, the motions halted and the cloud did an about-face. The fading soul was reabsorbed by its host body. The cloud bellowed a protest, cursed for its loss of concentration, and started to slowly work the rejoined soul out of Beverly's now conscious and moving body.

In a daze of fury, Jean-Luc ran after the cloud, dove beneath it, and made a protective motion to Beverly.

The entity, unimpressed by this show of courage, demanded answers to questions in payment of her lost patience. "Move, creature, or you will die along with this pitiful one."

He felt Beverly stir beneath him as she slowly regained her awareness. For her, he would move mountains, create constellations in her image, even stand aside as she falls for another. He loved her entirely…had always loved her.

For her, he would die.

He said nothing.

His heart seized about him, his senses dulled, and his consciousness slipped away.

He only remembered the cloud's sudden escape as he fell into the darkness.

*WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!*

*I thought it was plainly obvious…although you're pulling me back ruined it. Now I can't finish the job…*

*For Hell, why not? You ARE the queen of entity, after a—*

*BECAUSE IT'S NO FUN!!*

Q heaved for a moment after this sudden outburst. He didn't think before he continued his line of reasoning.

*I never thought it was possible for a Q to be insane before I met YOU! You are the apitamy of insanity…and I think you know it.*

*Maybe I do.* She thought for a moment before speaking once again, leaning against nonexistent structures in the mindseye.

*You'll have to excuse me…I have a lesson to teach those hideous Founders…*

*You have to destroy Picard and Crusher first.*

She smiled, an ugly, demented smile.

Chapter 5 ---Terms of Endearment---

The ship was trapped, the Intrepid was gone, and the captain was dying.

Beverly Crusher was more than exhausted.

It gets to a point, when someone is suffering from severe sleep deprivation, that a person's fatigue will feed off itself. For her, that point had been reached even before the attacks, which had left her with no energy.

Now, she waited patiently by the bed Jean-Luc was in, talking to him, hoping that he may wake up and talk to her again…even though her own diagnosis gave him little to no chance.

"Jean-Luc, wake up."

Her mind continued saying 'He can't hear you. He won't make it,' but her heart, which was in charge, refused to listen.

"I ORDER you to wake up…" Small tears began a descent over the contour of her face. Everyone had always thought her strong, solid. Unbreakable. If all these people were to see her now, they would have thought they were dreaming, or more accurately, having a nightmare.

Perhaps it was to be blamed on the immense amount of stress she was under now, or her complete exhaustion, but the brave, courageous, and strong Beverly Howard Crusher was now reduced to crying like a baby on the side of the bed, grasping Jean-Luc's hand as if he were being swept away by a flood…which, in reality, wasn't far from the truth.

"Sir, there is a subspace gamma wave on sensors…it appears to be heading in our direction."

Will Riker, through tired eyes, looked up to both officers at the forward stations. "Analysis."

Data's hands flew about the keyboard before him. He absorbed the information before giving his solemn report. "The configuration matches that of the living cloud that attacked Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard."

Will cursed under his breath. Beverly had told him everything she knew…and if that was any indication…

That thing was coming…to finish the job it started before.

The quiet peacefulness of the Caldos colony was, perhaps, Beverly's favorite place to relax. It had been her home for 10 years before the academy…and it still was. No matter where the cosmos and Starfleet would take her, this would always be home.

The strange thing was…she *knew* she wasn't really here…that she should be somewhere else…

She stepped through the doorway of the rustic old house, the smells of dried herbs and aged wood hitting her immediately, bringing back floods of memories. It took the Voice to bring her out of the trance.

"Mom?"

Beverly turned on her heels in surprise, having drifted to the center of the living room. Her shocked expression only changed to confusion when she saw the boy--god, no, *man*--before her.

"Wesley? What are you doing here?" She thought for a moment, then asked another question. "For that matter, how did *I* get here?!"

"Mom, please, I can explain."

Beverly gazed into the eyes of her only child…and saw maturity that she had never seen before…accompanied by a seriousness she had never known him to possess. She nodded distantly.

"There are some things you need to know about this…*thing* running around the sector. Some things that are essential to Captain Picard's survival…and yours. This is not a normal, unintelligent cloud floating in space. This is a real, thinking, genius, *sadistic* member of the Q continuum, capable of anything. She's done the one thing that all the Q have considered impossible among their kind…go insane. She's after the Universe. She's starting with the Founders. You're the only thing that stands in her way right now, and she won't think twice about eliminating your threat."

"Wesley," Beverly interjected, holding her hand up to halt his words. "How can *I* possibly be considered a threat to *her?*"

He seemed to struggle for words for a moment. How could he tell her everything? If he did…he just couldn't…how to get around it…

"You're a cosmic marker. It's not easy to eliminate you. To eliminate a cosmic marker is to destablize this entire area of space, and Travelling would be impossible here."

She was in a state of shock, but managed to spit out a remark. "Funny. She didn't seem to care when she tried to kill me earlier…"

"Or when she attacked Captain Picard. He's a cosmic marker, too. But neither of you are dead, and neither of you are likely to be…yet…"

"What do you mean 'yet?'"

Wesley looked again to his mother's face, still wearing a serious face. "There's a window of opportunity. You are only likely to die during this window. It lasts approximately five minutes and occurs every 33.6 epochal rotations…or every 6.7 years. This window opens for you both entirely too soon."

"How soon?"

"I don't know."

Wesley looked up suddenly, a pained expression on his face. He turned back to the woman that gave him his life.

"I'm sorry. I can't stay. I have to go."

He started to fade slowly, and Beverly tried to call him back…

But he was already gone.

'Just the same,' he thought. 'Any more time, and she would have asked more questions…she can't know everything…it would ruin The Prophecy…'

Chapter 6 ---Final Battle---

She awoke, suddenly, dazed and unsure of her surroundings. It took full moments to realize that she was in sickbay again...or had she always been there? Had it been a dream?

No, she decided. It couldn't have been...that was *really* Wesley and that was the real situation.

She knew immediately. They were all in trouble. She had to tell Will.

"Crusher to Riker."

An answer never came, and after attempting contact three more times, she gave up and decided to head "up."

She tenderly kissed Jean-Luc's forehead, whispering a promise to return soon, and turned to exit.

Slowly, his hand began to twitch and a light flashed in the room...

She ran, full blast, down the hallway, to one turbolift after the other, shocked, mortified, and frustrated in a mix as none of them responded to her requests. She dodged unfortunate ensigns only occasionally, most of them falling victim to a massive ramming. She didn't care about their injuries...they would all suffer worse if she didn't reach the bridge.

She was abruptly pulled back as sne hit another young woman.

"Wake up, Jean-Luc. You have work to do."

Picard was slowly coming around, edged on by a familiar voice. His brain didn't register the identity, or, for that matter, that he may be better off staying comatose...

"Oh, come along, you lazy neanderthal, *wake up!*"

His eyes snapped open, his mouth let out a groan, and he shut his eyes again.

"No you don't," Q ordered. "You have to save Beverly again."

The breath was knocked out of her as she hit the floor. Her vision fluttered to a young blonde, her e yes evil and her smile pure venom. She'd been tricked, and they were all dead now.

"You actually thought you could ruin my plans. Oh, my dear, how wrong you are. No one can stop me, not even a universal marker...especially not one who's window is upon her."

The young ensign lunged for Beverly.

Beverly's training kicked in instantaneously, and she rolled out of her path and on her feet, simultaneously landing a roundhouse to the small of the entity's "back".

She staggered, then regained her balance and lunged again.

Yet again, she missed, and Beverly chopped her at the back of the neck, sending the entity flying into a bulkhead...literally.

But just as Beverly mthought it was over, a pulse of energy lept from the exit point and into her body. She went down, convulsing. She knew this was likely where she would die...her window. Her head spun as a cloud formed above her. She felt the claud pulling at her soul, felt the life drain out of her body.

And then she heard *his* voice.

"Stop this at once!!!" You cannot harn her!!!"

The cloud broke off for a second to say, "Oh, but I can, and I have. You will both die…neither of you will interfere in my plans. You will perish!"

Slowly, the cloud began to near Jean-Luc, and he began to back the other way. The energy leaping within the form began to intensify….

…when a sudden, pure blue light came out of nowhere and encircled the grotesque yellow entity before them, squeezing it into nonexistence.

Both Beverly and Jean-Luc were mesmerized as the blue overcame the yellow. They found themselves, strangely, identifying with the new presence. They both knew it, somehow. Once a long time ago…

A forcefield formed around the dueling duo, and once cut off, they blinked away.

Beverly was breathing heavily, still catching her breath from the attack. The gasps turned to sobs as, in a tidal wave, everything that did happen, was happening, and could have happened hit her full force. She was moments away from having her soul ripped away…

And Jean-Luc!

She looked from her hands to the friend beside her. The friend that, she realized now, was so much more than her lover. He was her soul-mate—the one person she was truly destined to be with.

Once they were in each other’s arms again, nothing else mattered.

Chapter 7 ---Best Destinies---

A gathering sat, waiting for The Moment, in the green, lush terrain of Caldos Colony. Although they were among a dense collection of high-scaled cliffs and elder forests of ancient tree breeds, connected by rolling fields of densely packed wildflowers, the vista did not hold their attention. The, instead, held their focus in the opposite direction, toward a comfortable two-story cottage resting dead center in the valley, next to a babbling brook filled with pure crystal water. The house had been given small adornments for the sake of the event which was taking place…the joining of two people whose souls had been fused together long ago.

Friends sat sporadically among the overwhelming number of foreign diplomats that had been invited by that entity that had no right to: Starfleet, and more specifically, Vice-Admiral Alynna Nechayev.

There was also one among them that was an integral part of the lives joining together. The son of the bride, by her late husband, who had happened to be the groom’s best friend. He was, now, not quite human, but not quite anything else. He was a Traveler of the dimensions, albeit in training.

He watched as his mother, Beverly Howard Crusher, gave her heart and soul to her best friend, the man he regarded as the closest thing he’d had to a father since his own died: Jean-Luc Picard.

Their worry had been that he would object to the marriage, but there was no greater fan of the union than Wesley Crusher. He, in retrospect, actually wondered what had taken them so long.

His mother was so happy, and his new stepfather was so much more than just his mother’s husband. It was the mending of the family that had been broken apart twenty years previous, and Wesley couldn’t have been happier if—

His mind was caught with a strange sensation. One that resembled an entering presence…but was somehow vastly different. To make sure, he glanced around, but he found no fresh faces. Only those that had sat through the purposefully drawn out ceremony, and were beginning to tire of the symbolism of it all. He saw the familiar faces of family friends, who were enjoying every moment of both the marriage and the suffering of the stuffed-shirted bureaucrats. He saw the his mother, an Jean-Luc, lost within each other, oblivious to any words said.

The presence grew stronger, and with the strength came familiarity.

Despite the fact that he knew no harm was intended…he knew that the couple was being watched….