Title: Words Mean Nothing 9/12

Author: quew

Disclaimer: Paramount owns them all, I really, really don't. Although, I could be a paramount executive in disguise trying to pinch ideas for a new Trek series. But I'm not.

Rating: R.

Archiving: PM, if wanted. Anywhere else is fine too, just let me know! *g*

Warnings: Violence and some death (not explicit)

Notes: I realise there has been quite a long gap between eight and nine, and I really have no idea why...I just came up blank everytime I tried to write something. Not beta'd.

#

B'Elanna automatically leapt across, protecting Anna from any more explosions and when it became clear there were going to be no more, she helped the blonde up. Moving as fast as her injury would allow, Anna led the half-Klingon toward a squat, solid looking grey building on the south side of the compound.

'What the hell is going on?' B'Elanna cried over the noise of the next explosion.

'Your employers are attacking us! Did you lead them here again?!' Anna cried.

B'Elanna dearly wanted to round on Anna for being so stupid, but she held on to her temper tightly and spat 'You know I didn't!'

They reached the building, and B'Elanna noticed many other people hurrying from all over the base into it. Anna and the engineer followed them in, and they ended up in a low, long room full of shelves. Anna pulled off her dress without a hint of modesty and quickly pulled a pair of black combat trousers from a shelf, slipping into them. She tossed another pair to B'Elanna, who stared at them for a moment before making up her mind and getting into them. A black shirt followed, along with a reinforced bullet-proof vest and a pair of boots. Once they were in their kit, they went into another room and B'Elanna was armed with a large projectile weapon.

'If you're not with them, you won't mind defending this place against them,' Anna said as she loaded her own shotgun. B'Elanna noted the way the mechanism worked and mimicked the procedure easily. Before she knew it, she was in the middle of a pack of people running for the boundary of the base. They ran through a patch of scrubland and then hit small copses, the trees affording them at least some cover. Behind them, the base was at the centre of an ever expanding circle of black clad people - it looked like every person in the base was out.

Anna was on her left, a man on her right. The blonde was obviously suffering with her injury but refused to let in show, keeping pace with all of them, her face a grim mask. As they rounded a small hillock, B'Elanna gasped.

Laid out below them, about half a mile away, a huge task force of specialist police units were laid out, their formations perfect. The leader of B'Elanna's unit called a halt and they dropped into the scrub around them.

'Thank god we've only got another hour or so until darkness,' Anna whispered. 'They've really pulled out all the stops this time!'

B'Elanna peeked up again, this time with a pair of binoculars that were being passed around, and saw something that made her blood run cold. Strutting in front of a unit of tough looking individuals, Claudia was obviously making some sort of speech, her arm movements wide and enthusiastic. The men and women in front of her were stood to attention, their eyes following her every move, and their faces all held an expression that B'Elanna was all too familiar with.

She could see the loyalty, the pride of being led by that strong, capable woman in their eyes. She knew they would do anything for her - a Janeway tended to inspire that kind of feeling in their subordinates.

Swearing slightly under her breath, she checked her weapon nervously, aware that deep down she didn't really want to have to use it. At least with phasers you could make the shot non-lethal. This time she didn't have that option. She turned to Anna.

'Isn't there anything we can do?' She whispered. 'Can't we talk with them?'

Anna shot her a look that was half understanding, half anger. 'We've tried. They sabotaged the meeting and nearly killed three of us the process.' The blonde watched B'Elanna's face as her words sunk in, and then she gasped as a realisation hit her. 'You don't get it do you? Words�they don't mean anything. People lie. People twist things. Whatever anyone says, they usually don't mean it; they're just trying to get what they want; what they need; what they think they deserve. Actions count. Actions don't lie. Words�words mean nothing.'

B'Elanna reeled, Anna's impromptu speech hitting her hard. /You've spent too long in Starfleet,/ a voice inside told her. /She's just recited exactly what you thought while you were with the Maquis. Don't you remember? And then, you join Starfleet and you get caught up in their words of diplomacy and unity�you know the real world isn't like that�/

'You wrong,' she said, a steely undercurrent to her tone. 'I do understand.'

As if sensing B'Elanna's turn toward her sensibilities, Anna nodded. 'Are you ready?'

'Yes.'

'Good. Because they're coming.'

B'Elanna gasped and poked her head up out of the cover. Sure enough, the ranks of people below them were slowly and inexorably marching forward. She saw the first line hit the trees and immediately begin to use the cover, staying in the shadows and making it hard to pick them out.

'What are we going to do?' She asked.

Anna squinted up against the setting sun and sighed. 'Whatever we can.'

#

It was damp, the moisture from the loam seeping through the engineers clothes as she lay on her belly, covered by leaf-mould and netting. The unfamiliar material of the ski mask she was wearing itched, and her head was aching from wearing the heavy night-vision goggles for too long. Her shotgun was lying beside her, ignored, as she adjusted the sight on the silenced rifle stretched out in front of her in the darkness.

Her ears were pricked for the slightest movement around her, but all she seemed to be able to hear was her own heartbeats thudding crazily.

Suddenly, a twig snapped. Desperately trying to control her breathing, B'Elanna looked for the source without being able to move, swinging her eyes back and forth over her area. Just as she had finished, a foot appeared, treading lightly and carefully by her left cheek. It had missed her by a hairs breadth, and B'Elanna felt sure that the owner of the foot would be able to see her.

Apparently not, as the foot was joined by its partner, and the owner of the feet carried on. B'Elanna became very aware of the feel of the rifle in her hands as the person came into view, walking slowly and wearing night-vision goggles. In her world of fluorescent green vision and painfully controlled breathing, B'Elanna realised that she would have to kill this person. She didn't want to - Kahless knows she had, when she had been with the Maquis - but she didn't want to.

/You are a warrior!/ She told herself. /Act like one!/

Slowly, rising out of her camouflage like a vengeful demon, she raised her gun and fired. It was a different kind of fighting, she realised as the bullet left the gun in slow motion. Gone was the honour of facing an honourable foe; she was shooting people in the back.

The gun bucked in her grip, and made a flat 'Phhhuutt!' sound, the silencer effectively deadening the noise of the shot.

She saw the person jerk as the bullet entered their chest, falling to their knees. Played out in the green of her night vision goggles, B'Elanna saw the person fit one last time, and then their body was still. For at least a minute she stood and watched, waiting for them to groan, to roll over, to breath.

When she came back to herself, she found she'd fallen to her knees, and a small patch of vomit was soaking into the forest floor in front of her. She groaned, and, keeping her eyes averted from the person she'd shot, she stumbled deeper into the woods. It didn't matter how many times you fought and killed, it never got easier.

/You'll never be a true Klingon!/ A disgusted inner voice called.

/I don't want to be!/ She replied. /And I don't need to be to be a warrior!/

She dropped the gun, wishing for a batleth or anything else. She would rather have been in the Tsukante ring, fighting someone face to face to the death, than sneaking around in the woods and shooting people in darkness.

/You've done it before,/ a part of her argued. /When you were with the Maquis, you had to do many things like this. What's changed?/

/I have./

#

'You! Stop!'

Cursing her inattention, B'Elanna raised her hands and laced her fingers over the top of her head.

'Turn around and take off your mask!' The voice ordered.

As she did so, B'Elanna realised that she knew that voice. She took off her mask and goggles and then strained into the near complete darkness.

Suddenly, torch light blinded her. Stepping into the circle of it cast by an unseen torch-holder, Claudia circled B'Elanna, her mouth a thin, angry line.

'I should have known you'd be here!' She hissed. B'Elanna shrugged and didn't answer, even as she was grabbed roughly by two more of Claudia's team and dragged behind them. It wasn't long before they were out of the trees and cresting the same small hill that Anna and B'Elanna had been lying on not so many hours before. B'Elanna couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the blonde. That train of thought was utterly derailed once they crested the hill and they could see the complex beneath.

B'Elanna gasped, her heart sinking. The compound, lit up by floodlights to combat the darkness, was over-run. She could see military vehicles surrounding the buildings, shouts and commands floating up in the cool night air. Worse, she could see all of Anna's people being herded into the central area, row upon row of handcuffed rebels lined amongst the tress where, not too long ago, she and Anna had been enjoying their picnic.

She suddenly realised she had nothing left to lose - in this era anyway - and she waited until one of her guards let his grip on her elbow relax slightly, and then took her chance. Without letting herself think about what she was doing, she threw herself down the hill, pulling her other guard with her. They rolled head over heels, hitting the ground with bone bruising force while trying to grapple with each other. They rolled to a halt finally, and luckily B'Elanna ended up on top. She head-butted the man viciously, breaking his nose, and then leapt off him and ran for cover.

#