Title: Words Mean Nothing 10/12

Author: quew.

See previous sections for disclaimers, archiving info etc.

Warnings: Violence. Angst.

Rating: R

Notes:

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Shots thudded into the damp earth around her feet but still B'Elanna ran. She was suddenly aware of her body; the beating of her hearts; the harsh panting of her breath; the pain from her injured shoulder and the aching of her legs as they carried her to cover.

She dove into the nearest entrance to the base, and two startled policemen looked up. Seconds later, they were moving forward, ready to intercept her. She didn't hesitate and didn't slow down, running forward and slamming the heel of her hand into the lead man's nose.

Ignoring his squeal of pain and the sudden jolt of her injured shoulder, she lifted her leg and kicked the next man in the stomach, ramming her other elbow into his back as he doubled over.

She left the two men lying in the hallway, struggling to find their feet as she ran on. She took the next door left, and then the second right, ducking and weaving through the base. Voices, strangely distorted by the close concrete walls, made her think that enemies were everywhere, when in fact they were thankfully few and far between. Most of them were out in the central, grassy area, keeping an eye on their captures. The few that weren't were either still fighting outside, or giving the already searched base another cursory once-over.

She was hiding in a small room from two policeman who were searching the base when another attack of dizziness hit her, worse than the first two.

'Not now!' She whispered, clenching her fists and sinking to the floor before she fell. Curling up as tightly as she could, she made no noise through shear force of will. The room appeared to be melting from under her, slipping and sliding out of vision.

Another room seemed to be trying to superimpose itself onto the one she was in�a very familiar room, with fuzzy blobs that wore familiar coloured uniforms.

'We've nearly got her!' A youthful voice cried.

B'Elanna tried to answer but it came out as a dry sob, her body reaching its limit. She felt like she was being torn between the two locations, her body being pulled in both directions at once and ripping her apart. She closed her eyes, scrunching them tightly shut as tears threatened to fall, and willed herself to stay conscious.

'B'Elanna! Hold on!' A familiar voice ordered.

She tried to answer, but the moment she opened her mouth she felt like all her teeth were being pulled out at the same time. Her limbs were threatening to shut down one by one, the pain too much for her nervous system to handle. She threw her head back and let out a hoarse scream that degenerated into harsh, quick sobs.

'Stop!' An unfamiliar voice cried, full of pain.

'We need more power!' Another voice shouted.

'It's not going to work!' Someone else interjected.

The last thing B'Elanna remembered was the frightening feeling of, just for a second, being two people in two different places, before her body shut down altogether.

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It was a surprise to B'Elanna that, when she woke, she was all in one piece. Another surprise turned out to be that she had not been found while she was unconscious, which was at least one good thing that had happened that day.

She heaved herself to her feet groaned as quietly as she could as every single molecule in her body protested.

'Are you okay?' A soft voice said behind her.

She whirled, surprised. A shadowed figure was sitting on a small desk behind her.

'Who are you?' She asked.

'Forgotten me already?' Michael chuckled, although it held no trace of amusement.

B'Elanna didn't answer, instead choosing to examine the young man. He was a mess, mud smearing his clothes and blood dripping from a wound on his forehead. His black hair was sticking out at odd angles and he was favouring his left foot.

'Just you and me?' She said, rubbing her aching temple absently.

'Yeah,' Michael said. 'Are you gonna pass out again if we move?'

'Don't think so.'

Michael nodded and they left their hiding place, quietly traversing the base. B'Elanna was happy to follow Michael until they reached a small hatch set into the floor. She hesitated slightly before following Michael down into the pitch-black space underneath.

'Where are we?' She whispered.

'The sewers,' he replied.

She swallowed her revulsion and tried not to look down as he illuminated their passage with a small torch. Some of the things she stood on were made distressing sucking noise, and she resorted to holding her nose the last ten metres.

Finally, they were going back up a ladder. Following the man's lead, she exited as quietly as she could. The room was large, and covered in darkness. She could just make out row upon row of shelving as she hovered by him as he whispered instructions.

'We're in the back room of the armoury,' he hissed. 'Do /not/ make a sound. This will be the most heavily guarded section.'

'What are we here for?'

'Anything we can get our hands on.'

She nodded and they split up. She worked by feel, grabbing anything and everything she could. She filled her pockets first, stuffing small items in until she couldn't fit any more. Then she grabbed any weapons she found that had straps, slinging them across her shoulders. It occurred to her that she didn't actually know what most of the items were for, but she was sure she'd be able to figure them out given the chance. She saw Michael only once, crouched down by a wall and fiddling with something.

Footsteps sounded close by, surprising her. They were not the stealthy footsteps of someone secretly stealing weapons, they were heavy footsteps of someone who intends to stop people secretly stealing weapons.

B'Elanna froze, her arms full of items, and before she could act torchlight touched her. Before the guard could react, she'd dropped what wasn't already in her pockets or across her back and started to run. She immediately found it hard to run with the bulky guns across her back, and dropped three as she turned a sharp corner between rows.

Gunshots started to zip around her, hitting the floor and shelves.

'Hey! Stop that! You want to set something off??' A voice shouted: another guard. A third voice called out, and then a forth�B'Elanna realised that soon, the place would be swarming, and she didn't know where the sewer hatch was.

She pulled one of the things she'd grabbed out of her pocket. It was round shaped and fitted into her palm, with an odd looking mechanism on one end. It looked simple enough�pull the bit that moved and then throw? It didn't look much good as a hand to hand weapon, so throwing it seemed to be the best option.

She yanked the pin and threw it over the racks in the general direction of the guards voices, all the while wondering what it actually was. Some sort of smoke screen? Gas?

The explosion knocked her off her feet, throwing her into a rack of pistols. The shelves swayed dangerously, dumping their loads onto B'Elanna and threatening to collapse on her themselves. Under the pile of weaponry, the engineer was shocked. /Definitely not a smoke screen,/ she thought, her shock wearing off and leaving her with yet more pain.

Small explosions carried on for some minutes, gun magazines affected by the heat exploding one bullet at a time. She dug herself out of the pistols and found her feet, swaying slightly as she tried to clear the ringing in her ears.

'You!' The voice sounded slightly distorted and far away. She turned slowly, licking dry lips. Behind her, a guard stood, his face bloody and his clothes smouldering. 'What the hell did you do?!' He cried, stumbling slightly. B'Elanna recognised the agonised look on his face; He was in shock, in pain, and very, very angry, and she knew that there was often no reasoning with someone in that frame of mind.

'Look�I didn't know�' she managed.

'You didn't know that if you throw a grenade, it kills people?' He snarled, reaching the end of his tether. In a quick movement, he reached down for the pistol in his holster.

The gunshot sounded quiet after the grenade explosion. B'Elanna's eyes widened, and she stared down at the smoking pistol in her hand. She hadn't even remembered lifting it, or pulling the trigger. The guard, his hand still on his holstered weapon, slowly toppled backwards, a look of shock on his face.

'Well done.' Michael stepped out of the shadows, lowering his own weapon. 'I wasn't sure if I'd have to step in.'

B'Elanna didn't speak, she only shook her head and tucked the pistol into the back of her trousers. She swallowed hard, trying to dislodge the bile rising in her throat, and followed Michael as they started to move once again.

Guards, attracted from outside by the noise of the explosion, began to mount up inside the armoury. They barely made it to the sewer hatch without being spotted, and once down in the cloying darkness they ran back the way they had come.

From the room they had started from in the main base, they moved as quietly as they could to a room that gave them a view of the grassy centre and the armoury. They could see guards flocking toward the armoury, amongst them Claudia and other high ranked officers.

B'Elanna heard Michael mutter something under his breath, and it sounded to her like, 'no other way.'

She looked sidelong at him, noting the harsh set of his jaw and the despair just under the surface in his dark eyes. Something else was hidden there�remorse?

He reached down to a thigh pocket and pulled out a small black box. He pulled the antenna out and then flipped up the cover over the red button, the box's only adornment.

Things started to fit together horribly in B'Elanna's head as she watched his thumb descend toward the button...he'd mined the armoury...that's what she'd seen him doing...

Without thinking she reached out, grabbing the digit tightly. 'Don't!'

He turned on her and she could see the raw pain in his eyes. 'I don't want to,' he whispered, 'but there's no other way.' Then his face hardened one more, and B'Elanna saw the resolve there. 'Don't try and stop me.'

'The explosion�it'll kill every person in that building�' B'Elanna said, watching ever more guards approach the large double doors.

'And maybe a few outside, if it's large enough,' Michael agreed.

'Your own people are down there!'

'Any one of them would die for our cause!' Michael snapped, his eyes alight.

'Really?' B'Elanna asked. 'Have you been down there and asked every single one of them if they wanted to be killed for you?'

'Not for me! For us!'

'Is there a difference? There's always someone on top, someone calling the shots.'

His mouth fell open, the fire ebbing out his gaze. 'You're right�I should be down there�'

'There must be another way.' B'Elanna said again, gently prying the little black box from his hand.

'We've tried everything, and�they still hunt us down�' He said, sounding tired and drained. He slumped against the wall and put his head in his hands�'I thought it was the only way.'

'Nothing is ever the only way,' B'Elanna said.

'Really? Do you have another idea?' He looked up, his eyes hopeful.

B'Elanna searched those dark, dark eyes with her own, noting the moisture and despair, and wished to Kahless that she did have another plan. 'Well�we could try talking to them?'

He shook his head. 'We missed our chance for that�they've got us by the balls, we've got nothing to negotiate with.'

She looked down at the black box, and then back at the rebel leader. 'That's where you're wrong.'

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