Hope you enjoy. Please review—I don't bite. DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Trek/any of the original characters.
Chapter 1
A dark cloud of danger surrounds him as the dark figure leans back casually against the side of a building, every muscle tense and ready. Any minute now and his prey would walk straight into him: a rabbit unsuspectingly hurling itself into the awaiting jaws of a ravenous arctic wolf. The woman doesn't see him or his cold blue eyes which stare right into her. Her long brown hair flows loosely over her shoulders and down her back. She wears a navy blue blouse and dark black slacks, her green eyes glinting in the dying sunlight. A small girl, perhaps three years old or so, skips contently at her side, her hand clutching the hand of the woman, who looks down at her and smiles gently.
"Hurry up. It's going to get dark soon." She says. The girl smiles toothily and skips a little faster.
"Okay." She squeaks.
Khan's eyes narrow and he steps purposely into their path. The woman freezes instantly before quickly pushing the girl behind her as if she had the power to protect her from the monster that desires to take her life. But she didn't.
"Hello." Khan says darkly, his eyes narrowed. "And what do we have here?"
"What does it look like?" The little girl asks curiously, her voice void of malice. "It's just us."
Khan's dark smile widens at her naiveté . "So it is."
He lunges forward and slams the woman against the wall, his right hand curling around her throat, cutting off her oxygen supply. She gasps and sputters but, despite her struggles, she can't escape his iron grip.
"Let her go!" The girl yelps. "You're hurting her!" She tugs on his leg and he merely flicks her off. She's only three at most: what harm could she possibly inflict on him? She flies across the ally and lands roughly on the ground and tears slip from her eyes.
"Leave her alone!" She demands. The fear from earlier now replaced with anger. "Now! Let go of her, you meanie!" Khan can hear the girl crying and he loosens his hold on the woman's throat slightly as he turns back to look at the kid. She looks heartbroken and slightly injured, but she stands tall and glares defiantly at Khan, her chin raised high and her back ramrod straight.
Again his eyes narrow and his head tilts to the side a little as he inspects her. Who was this kid? Obviously, she didn't know who he was, but a fifty pound human girl standing up to an adult man is an impossible feat all on its own: but for her to stand up to him, not only a full grown Augment but their king—unflinchingly?
Unheard of.
Impossible!
He turns back to the woman and slams her one last time against the wall, his cold eyes burning into her murky green ones. He leans forward, his lips curling into a cruel smile and she flinches, expecting the killing blow to arrive at any second. His One of his hands drops to her shoulder and she can feel the bone shift painfully as he tightens his grip, his eyes glinting in the dimming light.
"Do not tell them I was here or I will make you regret this night. And I will destroy everything you care about and hold dear." His grip tightens on her throat and the girl comes to kick him sharply in the leg; he never feels the pain. Effortlessly, his other hand snakes out he and snatches the girl into the air by the back of her shirt and she squeals indignantly. She thrashes and punches at him angrily but he holds her an arms length away, her desperate blows missing him completely.
"Put me down!" Her legs pinwheel wildly and he lifts her up to eye level for the woman to see. She squeaks and tries to throw her body weight against Khan, but he has her effectively pinned against the wall.
"And I will start with this." He drops the girl to the ground and, without another word, he pushes the woman away from him—disgust etching into his features. The woman lurches forward and gathers the girl to her chest, her body curling protectively around the small child. Khan glowers at them and, surprisingly, the girl glowers back while her mother sobs, her body racking with terrified shudders.
Placing a bored look upon his face he turns and glides into the shadows and out of the alley.
Without a doubt, she would warn her superiors that he'd been in the area and the chase would begin anew…but at least the threat to her family would buy him some time. Regardless of the consequences to his own safety, he had to set them free. Khan couldn't explain it; he just knew that when he had looked at the child, he saw himself reflected back in her eyes pale blue-green eyes.
He would do anything for his crew; and she for her own respective family.
They would even lie down their lives and put themselves through agony. The girl was courageous and tried to evoke Khan's wrath to get him away from her gasping mother. She attacked a grown man, knowing it was a fight that she couldn't possible win in order to protect her family.
That deserved acknowledging.
Besides, the woman was simply an insignificant pawn that Sector 31 had implemented; personally, she had never really hurt him: she had others do it for her—for the sake of scientific advancement. Sure, she took a few blood samples and passed by his cell as she raced to another project, but she had been more...pleasant than most of the others, her indifference a welcome abnormality to their joyful cruelty. Killing her would not undo the wrongs that had been done, nor would it satiate his need for vengeance any more than if he'd curb-stomped a kitten.
He needed to aim a little higher up the chain and slaughter the king, not the pawn. One by one, he would watch the white castles, bishops, and knights—his enemies— fall defeated and dead at his feet. He would then find his family and take back what was rightfully his.
And no one would stop him this time from saving the ones he loved. No one.
Let them try: he would destroy them.
Let her live: she was nothing anyway.
She was merely a microscopic blip on his radar in his quest for personal justice and happiness. She was a speck of dust—not worth his time: an inadequate appetizer before the main meal—not worth devouring.
...
She runs home, her child clasped tightly to her chest.
"Who was that, Mom? Why did he want to kill you? Why are you running? What's wrong?"
"Hush, everything is fine. Don't worry. It's okay: it's all going to be okay." The girl didn't believe her but she stayed silent all the same.
They got to her home and she quickly rips the door open and slams it behind her and hastily locks it. If Khan wanted them dead, no number of locks could keep him from kicking the door down, but it made her feel better to put that much more space between her child and that homicidal monster.
She carries the girl to her bedroom and hugs the quivering child to her chest. "It's going to be okay," The mother whispers shakily. "We'll be fine. I promise."
...
That was ten years ago.
Now... now the world is on fire. Screams piece the air and the hard clay ground turns red with blood. Fear, like a tornado, whips through the air, smothering anyone in the immediate area as the attackers violently kill anything within sight. Screams of 'medic' and 'help me' crash together in a smothering haze but people take no heed as they stampede over their loved ones in order to save their own lives. And the girl watches on with sad blue-green eyes. Her mouth opened in a large O from screaming as her mother falls to the ground.
"MOM!"
No one listens: if anything, they run faster.
"Mom, get up!" She tries to run to the woman's side but the crowd is too thick, too terrified. She can but watch as the life slips out of her before she turns on her heel and flees like the others. Silent tears burn their way down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." She chokes out. "I'm so, so sorry."
So, how was that? Decent, I hope? Well, please review and tell me what you think; I'd love to hear your take on it.