Sane J/Cers
By Coral
Disclaimer: Whatever applies, applies. I'm
too tired for more.
Dedication: Mr Hewittson, for his daily greeting
of "You're mad, you are." It's nice to know someone
appreciates your qualities, even at 8:30 on a Monday Morning.
It started one evening, quiet and still,
Took root in one heart, put out a tendril,
Then deeper, and deeper, it worked its way in,
And each heart of madness became one of sin:
One that read fanfic and found it a bore,
One that found email a Braga-Damned chore.
The chat rooms fell silent and friendships were lost;
ISP's the world over were counting the cost
As phonelines went unused and computers stayed dead,
All Golden's novels of Trek left unread.
Resolutions unwatched and Shattered ignored -
They all turned to Seven with soulless accord.
The Sanity was suffocating and turning them bad;
J/C and love died with no one left mad.
But a light still shone, that the darkness hid:
One J/Cer in a coma from a suicide bid.
As she lies, and soundly sleeps,
Sanity like a virus creeps...
As she lay there in her bed,
Sanity like darkness spread...
She awoke to a world that was seemingly sane -
A world that filled her with sadness and pain.
She logged on the net, she checked her email:
Not a thing was in there. She turned pale
As she entered the chatroom and found
That no one was there when she looked around.
Everywhere was deserted, there was no one in sight
And she had no one to turn to in her fright.
She went out for a walk, to the fright of RL:
She found it to be her own personal hell.
The streets were crowded with former J/Cers;
Older and younger - some her peers.
The noise pierced her head, rattled her inside
As she struggled to stay on this crazy ride
Through a world of sanity and non J/C places;
A world of indifference on people's faces.
J/C videos were nowhere in sight,
And the poor girl had to wonder who might
Be behind this - for what was the reason?
Voyager only had one more season.
Only Paramount could benefit from death of J/C
But it would have been safer to leave them be.
Nonetheless, she decided, it was a theory for now
Until she disproved it - but she didn't know how.
She had to keep J/C alive in some way
To help J/C live for another day.
If she could regroup just a few J/Cers again
She could help them all to recapture that flame
Of passion and love and devotion they had -
The craziness, insanity - just being mad.
She liked this idea, and with this thought in mind
She ran down the road, hoping to find
A friend of hers, who once was insane;
Hoping that she, too, hadn't gone sane.
She was doomed to disappointment, for when bell sounded
And her friend appeared and the fears that were founded
She could see to be true, in the dullest of eyes
And the look on the face from the hope that dies.
She stared at the girl she once had called friend
As if she could will the future to bend
To her calling - but to no avail.
Blood drained from her face, her cheeks turned pale,
She'd thought that her friend could never be sane,
And the horror that struck her was physical pain.
"Please tell me," she whispered, "That you
remember it all?
Remember the bathtub, or you have to recall
The monkey and legend and all those near kisses?
Remember our screams at all the near misses?
Remember the love we felt building there,
The way that he fondled her golden hair?"
But her friend just stared back, with the dullest of eyes,
And said, "But dear, you know that's just lies.
Chakotay and Kathryn are friends, nothing more,
Anything else is against the new law."
She stared at her friend, as if in a daze,
Powerless under that heartless gaze.
She took a deep breath, and started to say,
"But dear, you didn't always feel that way-"
When her friend's hand reached out, touched her arm,
"They'll be carting you off to the funny farm
If they catch you talking like that," she said.
But at the touch, the darkness went in,
Started travelling down, spreading the sin
Of sanity like a cloud, darkening her heart
But she realised what was happening, and with a start-
She pushed past her friend, ran through the door,
Up to the bedroom, and tore up the floor.
For she knew what was stored there - a videotape -
Wrapped in a blanket and old plastic cape.
A tape that could possibly save the whole Earth;
A tape that could help insanity have a new birth.
It had Shattered, and Coda, Q and The Grey,
Resolutions, and Timeless - you could watch for a day
Because it had every J/C moment on there,
And in multiple languages, just to be fair.
Kissing the tape, and holding it tight
She ran down the stairs with all of her might.
She ran out down the street, and in through a door,
Finding herself on a hardware shop floor.
She pounced on a video and put the tape in
In a rush before the sanity could set in.
She pressed play with force, she left slightly sick -
What to do if it couldn't bring back the magic?
But, then, it was Resolutions, after all -
And Chakotay's legend was like a gathering call.
They flocked from the hills, they flocked from the street
The J/Cers came, that magic to meet.
As The Legend was ended, with Kathryn's sweet smile,
Still J/Cers came, from many a mile.
Their eyes were sparkling with tears unshed,
And they realised that J/C could never be dead:
Only covered in sanity and rational thought -
Something that forever should be fought.
And the light spread throughout them, ending the pain
And the darkness as they became once more insane.
And she - she who had saved them, rekindled the light -
Stood off to one side and revelled in the sight
Of a million J/Cers - who knows, maybe more -
As they filled and beyond filled the tiny shop floor...
She wondered at the power that called them to here,
Marvelled at the insanity overcoming fear.
She saw her own smallness, but wasn't afraid -
She knew that today, history had been made
As The Legend that brought them together again,
The Legend that had driven them all insane,
The Legend that served as a bond for them all:
That Legend, to them, would always call -
As that Legend echoed over, again in her head:
She *knew* that J/C could never be dead.
As long as The Legend could power the light:
Saneness and darkness would be put to flight.