Note: My Klingon phrase in here is probably incorrect, please let me know if it is! Reviews are always welcome, and thanks for reading!
"I fought for you, Michael," he said, reaching out to me. "You were the one I wanted to be human for." He kissed my forehead.
That was the last I saw of Ash Tyler. From then on it was only Voq, always Voq.
In my dreams, it's raining. Spock would have said it was a human cliche, emotions controlling the weather. Amanda would have argued the contrary, saying rain in dreams was a representation of the human psyche. Spock always quirked an eyebrow and walked away, Amanda reminding him he was human too.
In my dreams, I am on Pahvo, and it's raining. Pahvo, that beautiful, musical world where Ash and I kissed, where Saru tried to kill us, where we inadvertently set off a transmitter that brought the enemy straight to us. In the dream, that's all gone. No Saru, no Pahvans, no transmitters, no mission.
It was just me, Ash, and the rain.
"It almost never rained on Vulcan," I said, watching the rain pour down outside the shelter.
His arms encircle my waist, and I feel so safe.
"I haven't seen the rain in so long," he says. "It's peaceful. The calm in the storm."
I quirked my eyebrow in typical Vulcan fashion. "Some would argue that it is the storm," I joked.
He laughs, sending flutters all through my body and causing tremors in my heart.
"You're right. That makes you the calm in my storm, then, Michael."
I turn to face him, his arms still around me. I cup his face in my hands and press my lips to his. He kisses me back, slowly, passionately, lovingly.
The world fades away. It is just us and the rain, and the ever present biological music of the planet.
And then he turns fierce, violent. I pull away, pain exploding everywhere he touched me. He slaps me across the face with enough force to send me spiraling out into the rain, landing in an undignified heap.
"I thought you loved me!" I screamed, unable to tell if I am crying or if it is just the rain slipping down my face.
"How could I ever love a Human?" He snarls, spitting at my feet. "Especially one as dishonorable as you."
"Ash-"
"Voq! The Torchbearer!" He shouts triumphantly, transforming back to his Klingon self. "I seek Kahless!"
"No. It can't be," I breathe, shivering from shock and the cold of the rain.
He moves towards me, and I stumble away, backing into a large tree.
"Ratlh tlhIngan!" He screams. Remain Klingon.
He raises a bat'leth and plunges the blade into my chest.
I have the dreams constantly, stranded in a mirror world.
Ash Tyler isn't real, I tell myself.
But when I cry in the relative safety of the quarters of my mirror self, I know it isn't the rain on my cheeks.
And I am even more certain that the pain I feel in my heart isn't the blade of a bat'leth.