A/N - So after watching 2x05 Saints of Imperfection, I couldn't get the interactions with Philippa, Michael and Pike out of my head. This short one-shot is the result of thinking how Pike might have eventually found out about Emperor Georgiou.
Captain Philippa Georgiou of section 31 was tired and pissed off. Being on a starfleet ship meant she hadn't been able to utilise her usual methods, she had to be diplomatic and it was sickening and boring. Philippa needed vital information for her assignment and the people who could give it to her were not being forthcoming. It was for this exact reason that she was intruding on Captain Pike's time in his ready room.
"You need to tell me about Spock."
Christopher threw her a tired glance. He clearly was not enjoying her interruption, tough. "You need to leave my ready room."
Philippa Georgiou ignored Pike's commanding glare and poured herself a drink from his decanter; she liked to make herself at home and more importantly let the Captain know he wasn't in control here. She wasn't leaving until she got what she wanted.
"I know you've been holding back on me Christopher." She smiled sweetly at him whilst running a finger round the rim of her glass. He was glaring at her and his drink she was draining; unsure what was making him more angry. Philippa hated that he didn't seem even the tiniest bit afraid of her; everyone in this universe had no idea how dangerous she could be. The Philippa he had known would have never threatened anybody let alone a Captain on their own ship.
Captain Pike walked towards her with a fed up expression on his face. Georgiou was on guard as she automatically assessed the threat he could be to her, he may be a boring starfleet officer but he was trained in advanced combat and had seen action. Philippa never underestimated anyone. Her fingers brushed behind her back and was thankful to feel the concealed weapon still hidden and ready if needed.
"What happened to you?" Pike stopped just shy of her and looked pitying all of a sudden. Philippa wanted to lash out at his stupid face. She hated people thinking she as weak; her mirror self had been the complete opposite of her.
She just about managed to squash the impulse to crack the glass over his head. "I woke up." It was always amusing how people of this universe were confused by her, unsure of how she could be the person they all knew. If only they knew...
"I've known Philippa Georgiou all my life." Philippa tensed as his gaze grew detached and he became suspicious. "I don't know who you are, but you're not her."
Pike abruptly turned and walked away, and damn it he was going for his communicator on his desk. Philippa really didn't have much of a choice, her identity couldn't get out to the wider public and she needed what Pike knew.
She grabbed her concealed phaser and set it to kill before pointing it at the Captain without a second thought. "Stop right there Captain."
Pike halted just shy of the table recognising the menacing threat in her voice; his arm already reaching out to the comm unit. He looked back at her and his eyes widened in shock, he had not planned for or had been expecting this at all. Philippa hadn't exactly planned for this course of action but she was adaptable and did whatever it took; it was why section 31 valued her skills.
"What the hell are you doing?" He couldn't draw his gaze from the phaser which was pointing directly at his chest, it clearly wasn't lost on him that it was set to kill.
Philippa grinned menacingly. "My job, keeping the secrets hidden."
Pike gulped and she got a thrill as she recognised the fear on his face, he was finally taking her seriously and it felt good.
"Step away from the communicator." She indicated with her phaser to the sofa in the room.
Pike carefully held his hands up in surrender and stepped slowly in the direction she had been pointing. Annoyingly that when things stopped going to plan.
Pike was just crossing in front of her when the door to his ready room swooshed open and the whole situation went to hell.
"Captain?"
Christopher's mind was racing as his fight or flight instincts kicked in. One minute he had been dealing with an unwanted intrusion and now he was facing an armed incident. This had escalated far too quickly and he didn't know exactly where he had mis-stepped.
He tried to reduce his heart rate and fight the adrenaline as he did as Georgiou, or whoever she was, instructed. When he was passing in front of her he heard the familiar sound of a door whooshing open and he swore inwardly as he recognised the questioning voice.
Christopher let out a strangled cry as he was unexpectedly grabbed by the scruff of his uniform and dragged backwards forcibly. Before he knew which way was up his arm was grabbed and painfully twisted behind his back, immobilising him effectively. Predictably the phaser that had been pointed as his chest was now pressing tightly into his head.
Well shit. This was not where he had seen his evening going.
"What the hell are you doing?" Michael hissed at his captor and Pike was confused by the exchange already. Burnham and Georgiou had been strangely hostile to each other when Philippa had boarded and it had only gotten weirder from there.
Pike's panicked eyes landed on Michael; the door had swished closed behind her. She had clearly been head deep in a data pad when she walked in which now hung by her side forgotten. He was unsure if anyone on the bridge had seen this but the lack of alarms or raised voices informed him that they hadn't been so lucky. Then again did he really want anyone else involved in this? Now Michael was in danger too.
"Step away from the door Michael." Philippa sounded angered but not flustered.
Michael's mouth remained open in shock; she blinked then after Philippa pressed the phaser harder into Pike's head she complied. Now the shock was fading away Pike recognised his officer's anger and was that guilt he was detecting? What the hell had happened between these two?
"Think about what you're doing. How do you think this ends?" Pike spoke over his shoulder as far as he could twist, he only caught a flash of black before he groaned in discomfort when Georgiou twisted her grip on him painfully. It wouldn't be out of the question for her to break it in this position.
"Instruct the computer to lock the door." She hissed into his ear.
He looked over at Michael helplessly the last thing he wanted to do was be locked in this room with an armed hostile but what choice did they have.
She shook him impatiently. "Now!" She hissed harshly.
"Computer, lock my ready room door."
The Sound of a lock clicking echoed in the small space and the computer parroted the command had been carried out. The tension in the room rose considerably but Pike noticed Philippa's hold on him loosen a tad which was a relief. The phaser didn't move though.
"You know you can't do this, not even with section 31's clearance." Michael was looking at Georgiou menacingly, the same way she had when Georgiou had arrived on Discovery.
Pike thought it best to let Michael lead this for now, she seemed to know more than she was letting on. This whole situation was weird and dangerous and he didn't like being in the middle of it, literally.
Pike tensed as he felt himself being pushed forward a few steps. "I need information he has."
Michael laughed incredulously all of a sudden, she didn't seem as afraid anymore. "This isn't the empire Philippa."
Empire? What on earth was Michael talking about?
Pike thought it was a good moment to add his 2 cents. "Look, nothing's happened here that can't be undone."
His input didn't go well. Chris grimaced as the hand holding his wrist twisted and he was forced to lean backwards to avoid a broken arm.
"One twist and this is broken. That can't be undone." Philippa whispered nastily into his ear, what had he done to make her hate him this much?
Pike hissed as the the pressure didn't relent. That was until Michael took a step forward and held her hands out placatingly. "Stop, Philippa please stop."
Chris breathed a sigh of relief as the hold loosened and he could actually feel his wrist again. Michael was looking pleadingly at Philippa and for some bizarre reason it seemed to be working. Pike stood very still as the seconds ticked by; he was sure it could have gone either way but eventually his wrist was released entirely and he was pushed away from Philippa.
He came to a stop next to Michael and clutched his sore arm tightly. Predictably the phaser was still pointing at his chest but this position was at least an improvement and Georgiou looked less pissed.
"Look I don't know what your mission is but you know this is not how Starfleet operates." Pike began to try and be diplomatic again, after all section 31 didn't have a license to do whatever they wanted and they needed to sort this out without further violence.
Philippa grinned dangerously at him, if the situation wasn't so insane he would have said she was enjoying this.
"I like to bend the rules."
She was unbelievable. His still hurting arm and the phaser set to kill was testament to that. "I can see that."
"You should leave whilst you still can." Michael interrupted and tried to be the voice of reason.
Philippa growled and tightened her grip on the phaser. "I'm not leaving until I get the information I need on Spock."
Pike swallowed hard as the original cause of this mess was brought up. He didn't see a way out of this; well whatever this was. Not without one of them giving in and at the moment they were like two immovable objects
"That's not going to happen." Michael and Pike answered at the same time, it was quite scary how mirrored they were. Their fierce protection over Spock outweighed the phaser pointing their way.
Philippa seemed to notice their protective stances and that they weren't going to budge on the subject. She looked furious at the lack of cooperation and Pike was sure she was going to shoot him. Then something happened he didn't expect. Burnham stepped in front of him.
He blinked in shock and was sure Georgiou would fire and kill both of them but something was staying her hand. "Michael step out of the way." Georgiou ordered and she was flustered all of a sudden.
Pike was about to order his Commander to do the same thing until he heard her whisper over her shoulder. "Trust me." If there was one thing in this mad situation he could do it was that so against his better judgement he stayed quiet.
"That's not going to happen Philippa. Both of us would rather die than give up Spock." Pike agreed with Michael's sentiments completely.
Georgiou narrowed her eyes dangerously. "So why shouldn't I kill both of you?"
Chris felt a chill pass through him. This was definitely not the Philippa he had gone through the academy with, this woman was cold hearted and the thought of murder came as easy to her as breathing.
Michael didn't flinch at the words, she definitely knew more than he did and if they got out of this he would have a long talk with Commander Burnham. Ever since Georgiou had boarded Michael had treated her differently like she knew something they all didn't.
"Could you?"
Pike would have said yes with the way Georgiou was glaring at him, but when her eyes landed on Michael he saw doubt there; these two definitely had a history he hadn't read about. She seemed to evaluate her options for a few tense minutes and Pike felt more uncomfortable the longer they waited for a decision. Unfortunately he didn't keep any weapons in his ready room so if they couldn't talk Georgiou down then they were in deep trouble .
Miraculously and unexpectedly Philippa lowered her phaser. "This isn't over."
She touched her badge and was disappearing in a burst of light. Somehow she had triggered a transportation to god knows where using her badge. What the hell? It took Pike a few moments to realise that Philippa was gone and there wasn't a phaser pointing at them anymore.
He moved quickly to inform the bridge of the situation when Michael's hand landed on his arm.
"I've got to put us on alert, tell the bridge what happened." He explained numbly.
"Just wait." He suspiciously looked at her, he hasn't pegged Michael as someone to go against Starfleet protocols. "Wait until you hear the whole story. Philippa Georgiou isn't the same person you once knew."
Pike laughed incredulously. That was the understatement of the year. She had nearly killed him and Michael in cold blood. "You could say that again."
Michael looked at him pleadingly and he was swaying to listening to her. "Please Captain, she's gone now. You need to hear the truth first."
He debated it for a few moments and came to a decision. "Alright, but I'm ordering shields up so we can be sure of no unwelcome transports."
"Okay." Michael agreed then poured them both a drink. Pike realised he definitely needed one after that experience.
With the shields up Pike finally relaxed enough to listen to Michael's story. They sat for hours whilst Michael told him everything, the longer she talked the more he drank. He had told her it had to be one hell of a story to explain what had happened and Michael didn't disappoint. He could now see why Burnham had reacted the way she did when Philippa had come aboard, and why she was so worried about Spock's safety in the hands of section 31. What on earth had he stepped into aboard Discovery?