If drinking contests with Scotty were bad during shore leave and waking up with one of the worst hangovers ever, then this definitely bet it. Painfully, you opened your eyes, the lights seeming far brighter than they actually were as they attacked your sensitive eyes. Your head was pounding with sever pain which made you forget briefly where you were and what had happened. But then you remembered the fight, the soldiers firing at Kirk, you and most of all Khan. You remembered Scotty getting knocked unconscious by Khan and you running towards him, then after that was nothing but darkness and pain.

With a groan, you lifted your head up off the cold, dark floor, holding yourself up by your elbows. God, you were dizzy, the headache wasn't helping with anything as the room spun before your vision finally centred itself and focused. Blinking more frequently than you usually would, you quickly scanned the room, noticing you were in the centre of the room rather than at the far side where you blacked out on, noticing immediately that you were still on the USS Vengeance. However, the question on your mind was where was Kirk and Scotty? Surly if they had returned to the Enterprise they would have dragged you back there with them?

You closed your eyes and grimaced, ready for the pain as you pulled yourself up into a sitting position. You hesitantly opened your eyes again and then it hit you. Where the hell was everyone? There was no soldiers, no Marcus and no Khan. No one what so ever. You didn't know wither that was a good or bad thing, especially the 'no Khan' part. You sat there for a few moments, composing yourself before forcing yourself to stand.

Too soon.

You were far too dizzy at the moment to stand as you almost fell forward, flat on your face. That was until a pair of hands grabbed you from behind, steadying you. The hands stayed on your waist until their person was satisfied that you could stand yourself. You refused to move, you had a gut feeling you knew who those hands belonged to and that froze you on the spot.

"Take it slowly." said the voice from behind you, so close to your ear that it sent shivers down your spine. You didn't need to turn around to know who's voice it belonged to. You already knew.

Exhaling the breath that you hadn't realised you had been holding, you quickly placed your hands on Khan's hands on your waist, pulling them off of you as you quickly turned to face him.

"I'm fine." you lied through gritted teeth at the pain your head was feeling. Khan rolled his eyes at you before scanning you from head to foot before looking back into your (eye colour) eyes.

"Liar." he growled, frowning at you. You took a step back from him, terrified. Khan must have noticed your fear in your eyes as his face softened ever so slightly. You couldn't, no, you refused to take your eyes off him.

"What-" you lifted one of your hands, rubbing your forehead while grimacing again at the sharp pain the flooded through your mind for only a few seconds before just as quickly going back to the minor headache. "What happened?" you asked, slowly dropping your hand. Khan tsked.

"Look around you, (Last name). What do you think happened?" he nonchalantly said, walking over to the Captain's chair, where you had last saw Admiral Marcus, and sat down on it, quite contently. "It should be obvious."

You tried your best not to glare at him, as difficult a task that may be. But he was right, it was obvious. Khan had taken over the ship. The dead in the room had been disposed of. And Kirk and Scotty nowhere to be see. Unless…they weren't dead, were they?

"So what happened to Kirk? To Scotty?" you asked, crossing your arms where you stood. Khan sat there in the Captain's chair, pressing at some buttons on the console in front of him before stopping and looking up at you, scanning your face with his bluey-green eyes.

"Gone. They left you here." he simply stated before carrying on pressing buttons. You furrowed your brows at what he had said. There was no way he was telling the truth. Scotty sure as hell wouldn't leave you behind and Kirk would never allow leaving a crew member behind, no matter how stubborn they were. You marched over so that you were standing in front of Khan, the console being the only distance between you both.

"Liar." you growled, copying what he had said moments before. He looked up at you as his eyes met yours, irritation marking his face. "They wouldn't leave me here, especially with you." you coldly said. Khan sighed.

"You're right, they wouldn't leave you behind. That's why I made them leave you behind." Khan emotionlessly said, his eyes watching your face for your reaction. You fought between a mixture of anger, confusion and concern. You bit your bottom lip in attempt to calm yourself and not start shouting at super-genetic human who could kill you within seconds, Khan raised a brow.

"Why?" you coldly questioned, a frown now masking your face. Khan closed his eyes, muttering something under his breath that you couldn't understand.

"Do you remember what I said to you back on the Enterprise?" he asked, eyes still closed. You nodded your head.

"Yes, I remember." you said which made a small smile rest on his face. "You know, you never did tell me who I reminded you of." you said in a calmer voice, hoping that perhaps you might get an answer out of him. The smile that was on Khan's face vanished as his face went back to it's usual emotionless state, his bluey-green eyes bursting open to look at you.

"I know." he stated, looking down at the console. You raised a brow waiting for him to give you an answer, completely caught up in the suspense that you forgot about your headache. Though as seconds passed that soon turned to a minute, then to two minutes, did you realise you weren't going to get one.

With a heavy sigh you backed off from Khan and the console, walking a wide circle around the console so that you were now on the same side as Khan, who was caught up mashing buttons. From what you could see he was attempting to get the ship back online, he was doing everything right, except…

"May I?" you quietly said from behind him. Khan slowly looked up at you with a questionable look on his face, but he nodded anyway and allowed you to access the console.

Why you were doing this, you didn't know. You could easily damage the ship more from the commands that this console allowed. It was strange that he allowed you, that he somewhat trusted you. No, not trust. He trusted no one. Perhaps seeing what you would do? Wither you would betray him and be forced to kill you? You guessed that the only reason you were still alive was because of this person you reminded him of, whoever they were, you were thankful.

"Athena." Khan whispered in a soft voice causing you to stop and quickly turn and look at him.

Khan was looking down at his hand that rested on the edge of the console. Your heart ached at what you saw: a broken man. That safe guard, that wall that he had built, never to allow himself to show his emotions, was breached. His face was mixed with sadness and pain as his eyes began to water. You stood there watching, waiting for him to continue.

"You remind me of her." Khan quietly said. Slowly he turned to look at you, a tear or two escaping his eyes and racing each other down his face, over his sharp cheekbones and down to his chin. Blankly, you stared at him. You knew nothing, nor anyone by the name of 'Athena'.

"Who was she?" you asked, hoping that since his guard was down that you might actually get a straight answer from him. He looked intently into your eyes, mouth opening then closing again, as though conflicted wither to tell you or not. "Please, tell me." your quiet voice said.

Silence.

Khan closed his eyes, calming himself. The emotions on his face vanishing instantly before he opened his eyes. He looked you square in the eyes.

"Athena was my wife."

Your eyes widened. You weren't expecting that. Nor were you expecting Khan to be a married man.

"I can take over from here." he said, taking over the console as you stepped back a few feet away from him.

No, no, no! He was keeping you alive because you looked like his wife?! You closed your eyes. This wasn't happening! This. Was Not. Happening. Kirk and Scotty had left you trapped on a ship with a mad man who only liked you because you reminded him of his wife! You shook your head in disbelief. You had to get out of here and away from him.

And fast.

While he was looking up at the monitors and pressing buttons on the consoles you took it as your chance to get out of here and ran for the nearest door. As the door opened, Khan's head instantly turned away from the monitors to look at you.

"Wait!" he shouted from where he sat, but you ran.

Having no idea where the hell you were going yet again, you took your chances with the speedy decisions that you made as you ran hell and leather for a way out and back to the Enterprise. You were so going to make Scotty and Kirk pay for this!

From behind you, you could hear distantly Khan shouting for you to stop running and that no matter where you hid on this ship, he would find you. Currently you were running through what appeared like a control room, as there were various consoles and monitors flashing various warnings and with different coloured buttons on them. You looked over your shoulder to see if there was any sign of Khan. There wasn't.

However, as you weren't looking where you were going you tripped over something solid, causing you to fall and land on the floor, your hands placed out to break your fall. Quickly, you pulled your feet away from whatever it was, bringing them closer to you as you turned to glance at what had caused you to fall.

Instantly, you regretted it.

What you had fallen over, in an attempt to evade your pursuit from Khan was not something, but more accurately someone. A soldier. A dead soldier. One of Admiral Marcus's soldiers.

You felt ill as you scanned over the solders appearance.

The soldier still held his gun in has hand loosely. Blood had poured out from the shot wound in his chest, near enough his heart, he would have died almost instantly or perhaps a few minutes afterwards, bleeding out dry. His face was pale, his dying expression being that of surprise as his blue eyes were open wide and his mouth partly opened. His neat dark blonde hair sitting unmoved.

You became numb.

So very numb as tears began to drip down your face.

He was no soldier.

He was your brother.

He was your hero.

"Martin!" you shouted and began uncontrollably sobbing. You knelt beside him, taking both his pale, cold, stiff hands and placing the hand nearest you on your cheek as you cried. You could barely breathe.

You then put his hands across his chest as you moved up nearer to his head, putting a hand over his face and closing his blue eyes forever. You pulled him onto your knees as your buried your face into his hair, the familiar scent of his shampoo still lingered.

Now, now you no longer cared. Not for your life, nor for what was to happen to you once Khan caught up to you. With Martin dead nothing else mattered. You were alone in this God forsaken galaxy. And it was all because of Marcus, yes, if he hadn't awakened Khan in the first place none of this would have happened. Martin would still be alive.

You sat there and cried uncontrollably for what felt like seconds but where in fact minutes until your eyes and throat hurt so much that you couldn't cry anymore. But what you hadn't yet notice was Khan standing tensely in the doorway, watching you.

"Lieutenant." Khan said as the room fell silent, the only sound coming from broken deep breaths and sniffling of your nose. You didn't turn to face him. You didn't want to. You didn't care. You could hear him take a few footsteps into the room, stopping a few feet away from you.

"If you're going to kill me then do it now. I won't run from you any longer." you said in a whispered and broken voice, you were almost convinced Khan never heard you.

That was until he walked the rest of the way over to you and knelt down beside you, he didn't look at your brother. Instead, his sad bluey-green eyes were locked on your face, as you kissed your brother's head and slowly placed it down on the ground.

"I could never hurt you." Khan softly said beside you, causing you to turn your head sharply and look at him.

"I'm not her, Khan. I'm not Athena!" you angrily snapped. Khan frowned at you.

"I know." he said before letting out a heavy sigh. "I know you're not Athena. You're (First name)." You turned away and looked back toward Martin. He looked as though he were sleeping, a sleep that would hold him forever. At least your mother would have company now.

"I know what it's like you know. To lose the people you care about, the ones you love and hold close to. To have them ripped away from you, leaving you with nothing but to be alone in this pathetic excuse of a galaxy. To have only one thing to fight for." Khan said watching you closely. "I know how it feels, (First name)."

You slowly half turned to face him, your eyes looking at him from there corners.

"What happened to her, Khan?" you asked, still watching from the corners of your eyes. Khan's eyes filled once more with tears, his face marked with pain as he thought back at the memory. He closed his eyes.

"We were on Earth at the time, a civil war had broken out. My crew and I were asked to aid the troops fighting against the rebels. Athena and I were split into different teams, her team were to attack the rebels by surprise while my team were on the front line. Hours had went by and we had heard no word from Athena or her team so I left my post, I had to find her." Khan stopped momentarily as you turned to face him now, your face stained with trails made by your tears. "Most of her team were dead when I found them, they had been ambushed. She was dead when I found her, shot at least four times through the heart." Khan opened his eyes and looked into your (eye colour) ones as tears streamed down his cheeks. "There was no chance of her surviving."

You opened your mouth to say something when your communicator bleeped in your ear and then spoke a familiar voice.

"Lieutenant?" said Kirk's voice impatient voice said. You could hear some fuss in the background, a Scottish voice ranting and shouting, oh Scotty. "Lieutenant, do you copy?" Kirk spoke again.

You made no effort to move, frozen on the spot on the floor beside your brother and Khan. Hearing the story about Athena pulled at your heart. Khan had been through a similar situation that you were currently going through where he had lost someone he loved so much just because they were following orders, just like Martin, and as far as you knew, Khan had no other family left…just like you.

"Lass, say something! Please." Scotty desperately said from the other side of the communicator. "Please be alive." he repeated quietly over and over as he waited for a response.

Before you could answer any of the Enterprise crew, Khan took both your hands in his. You looked at both of your hands in his before looking at him with a blank face.

"I know you're not Athena, (First name). But I promise you this, if you stay here with me then I will protect you from whatever harm you may fall under. I failed to protect Athena, I know that, but I refuse to allow that to happen again. (First name), if you stay then you will have that fighting chance at staying alive that Athena didn't have." Khan said as he raised one of his hands to your face, caressing your cheek. "Please." he whispered.

Then the next thing you knew, the dark haired, bluey-green eyed, genetic-super human's lips met yours, stunning you into shock. His soft lips stayed there for a few seconds before he pulled away as he looked at you intently. He cleared his throat and stood, hold out one of his hands to you.

"So, shall we begin?"