Disclaimer: Paramount own them. But I bring them to life by taunting
their emotions via angst ;-)

Nightmares of the soul

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There were drilling through his skin, he could feel I the sharp
nicks of pain spreading as the wires and filaments wound themselves
deeper and around his bones. Cold metal, swarming around his warm
heart, interfering with that comfortable heat that was dissipating
with the rape of his body. He would of screamed if possible, but his
body was still, steadier than a pillar of marble in the wind, but
terrified of that immobility to help himself.

The whispers spread through his mind, whispers from everywhere and
everyone. One. That was what he would become. Not an individual but a
universal body that consumed everything as a single being. Borg.

Through unmoving eyes he watched as the drones moved closer to
collect his newly gained form, and watched as his friends, and family
moved back saddened at his jump of allegiance to the other side. One
set of eyes, heart and mind kept with him as she was dragged away
screaming his name. Will. Imzadi. These words would mean nothing
soon. Only numbers would rule his domain.

A forced tear escaped the blue iris before millions of nanites
swarmed into his eye socket and ruined his natural vision from the
inside out, corrupting it to a higher form of technology to view the
worlds he would soon join in assimilating.

Inside the man that would be no more screamed for help. None came but
for the answering cry of thousands of Borg minds. Resistance is
futile.

A scream shattered his immobility, bringing him lurching forward,
sitting ramrod straight, and starring at the far bedroom wall. As
reality closed in and the dreamworld of torture he'd endured vanished
with each heavy pulsing heartbeat, forcing away the tarnish of
terror. He swallowed hard, still not moving, and realised the scream
had been his own. He finally blinked once, and twice before dragging
a shaking hand to his slowly bowing head.

He dragged the sweaty palm through equally sweat drenched hair as his
head dropped into the other hand he brought to his face, hesitantly
feeling the eye socket, making sure nothing was artificial and all
was there. He let out a small sob from the terror that his twisted
sheets were testament to.

He shivered and the cooling sweat around his body chilled him. Too
terrified to move, he sat shivering in the dark waiting for the
whispers in his head to start and this reality to become a fake
backdrop of safety.

The chrono chimed and Will Riker jolted, head rushing up to meet the
electronic sound. He shivered again and took a deep swallow as tight
muscles slowly uncoiled but still left the dull pain of cramp behind.

Able to move he reached for the hypo by the beside and injected it's
blue liquid form into the strained vein standing out from the crook
of his arm. The hiss, sounding like a hydraulic, caused him to
peripherally scan his surroundings for metal beings, before finally
closing his eyes in relief.

The door to his quarters buzzed, and alerted him to someone's
presence outside. He knew it'd be her. She knew he'd awoken again as
he had for the last few days. Bed ridden from the exhaustion of
dreams, and removed from duty. He sat waiting for her to key in her
own over-riding lock.

She moved into the bedroom. Following the constant chime of the
chrono to his location in the dark. Faint starlight guided her booted
feet to his side, turning off the chrono he demanded to keep him sane
of the days and nights that passed him by, staying rigid to duty.

He smelt her perfume and remembered of the times he'd smelt vanilla
by his side.

The gentle sloping of the bed gave away her seated position beside
him. She drew a hand through his hair and pulled a hand away from his
red swollen eyes. "Another dream?" She asked, checking the small
monitor that was secured above his heart.

He nodded and allowed her gentle touch, absorbing it from the one
person who understood what he was going through. "I can't keep doing
this." He whispered.

"I know." She answered drawing his head to her chest as he silently
cried himself back to a restless sleep. She rubbed his back and made
soothing sounds, even while he slept, hoping it would keep the demons
away. Hoping the bond would one day finally release him from it's
connection.

"I understand what your going through Will. I honestly do." She laid
the exhausted man back to the bedding and pulled the blankets up high.

Checking that he'd used the hypo by the bed stand, she replaced it.
"I understand Captain. I truly do." Beverly whispered as she made her
way out of the bedroom of the Enterprise's newly assigned captain,
removed from duty by personal stress. The stress that only the Borg
could cause when one's loved one was ripped from your arms and
delivered into their own technological embrace.

Chasing a tear from her right eye, Beverly made her way out into the
corridor. Remembering her own loved one, Jean Luc, before they took
him and made him theirs. Remembering Deanna, and the day Will Riker
had watched her dragged from his own clutches into theirs. And
Beverly watching Will as he crumbled from the pain and nightmares
that traversed the bond from his own Imzadi, his Betazoid princess
who now had become queen amongst a different people.

It would never end. The pain. The loss.

Tears fell. And worlds fall. And the Borg would consume all.

But one day, the tall dark blue eyed man would return and exact a
vengence for both of them. The borg had taken his family, his career,
his health but not his soul. Given time, Captain William T. Riker
would remove the pestilence that had torn many families apart, making
an offence on the one person who now taunted him nightly in the form
of the Borg Queen, his Imzadi.

And that one offense would be his last.

Beverly knew her best friends future all too well. He would become a
hero. But a matyr aswell. A saviour but a corpse of many in the
battle against the borg.

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The creepy end ;-)