Opening her eyes to the darkness that surrounded her, Abigail stood from the cold return pad of the Starship Vengeance. She could hear the slow breathing of another person, most likely the admiral's daughter, near her on the ground. What she assumed to be the door opened and flooded the compartment with bright light. Blinking rapidly to adjust to the brightness, she felt her arm being roughly grabbed by one of Marcus's private security guards. She bit the inside of her cheek to avoid the urge to easily fight her way free, and allowed herself to be pulled out into the hallway. Hearing the other guard grab Carol and follow the two of them in the direction of the bridge, she calculated every single point she could incapacitate the guards at, the blueprints that Khan had designed flashing through her head.
As they entered the bridge she felt the guard holding her give her a little push forward to signal that they were almost there and she was being slow. Grinding her teeth together, she spun around to face the guard and felt the tip of a phaser being held to her belly.
"Oh please," she growled, her eyes locked on the brawny man before her, "make my day."
A flash of uncertainty passed over the guard's face and she watched his eyes flit passed her shoulder and to Marcus's as she heard him rise from the captain's chair.
"Marcus, I'm sure you're curious to see if it'll incapacitate me," she began, keeping her eyes on the man before her as he held the phaser steadily. "I won't stop you."
"If you're looking for pain all you had to do was ask," the admiral replied steadily.
Abigail felt a pinch at her shoulder, seeing the plunger being pushed down in her peripheral vision just before she snapped her arm up to grab the throat of the needle wielder in question. The syringe dropped to the floor and she heard the phaser go off at point blank range. Her head snapped forward, knocking unconscious the guard who dropped the phaser before having his head smashed into the oncoming head of the man who had injected her with only God knew what. Both men dropped to the ground and she met the horrified blue eyes of Carol Marcus. Silently, she pivoted to face the admiral once again, distaste for the man filling her gaze and coloring her thoughts red.
"If you were curious as to what was in that syringe, it was just something that I had my boys in the lab whip up incase Khan were to do anything...ill advised." Marcus walked back towards the captain's chair, sitting in it slowly, as if his back hurt. "It's meant for Augments like you, so that should be taking effect soon." He faced her slowly, looking up at her with intrigue as he twisted the chair to line up with the direction his head was facing.
Abigail raised her eyebrow, keeping her face measured as she looked down at the man before her. She walked over to stand in front of him. "I don't particularly care," she replied, venom laced in her words. Her muscles began to ache slightly, a faint echo as if from a past injury spreading from the injection sight and through her limbs. She didn't think that it had shown through until the man continued.
"It'll start like an ache. Sore muscles building up to a shooting fire running through every single vein in your body until you can't take it anymore. You'll slowly begin to lose your sight and control of your arms and legs. But you should be able to hear just fine." He smirked then, thinking of her crumpled on the floor, defenseless as he commentated her distress. "Until your ultimate demise that is."
"I don't care," Abigail repeated, watching the admiral raise his eyebrows. "As long as I can hear Khan ending your life, I don't care." She laughed then, watching any satisfaction drain from his eyes in that moment.
Admiral Marcus stared at the woman a moment, realizing the fierce devotion and loyalty the Augments seemed to have. Abigail in particular. This woman didn't care what happened to her as long as Khan, whatever he meant to her, had had his vengeance. Marcus knew that when faced with the unknown of expiration, Abigail would face Death with a smirk and welcome it as though it were an old friend. The admiral's eyes flickered over to the watery eyes of his daughter who stood trembling, still restrained by the guard to her left.
A new wave of pain hit Abigail, blooming at the base of her skull and sliding a fiery fingertip down her spine and engulfing her chest. A far more noticeable shudder shook her as she tried to maintain her composure. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as she forced herself to lift her eyes back up to meet the cold gaze of the admiral. His whole body straightened to attention, noticing the effects of the drug quickly taking their hold of the young woman before him. A satisfied smirk curled his thin lips and he folded his hands casually in his lap.
"When Khan gets aboard this ship, he won't be able to touch you," Marcus gloated, leaning forward slightly. "You'll be too far gone."
Abigail raised her eyebrow, as if to solidify the words she was about to repeat. The admiral nodded, raising his hands in mock surrender, but his grin was unwavering. His wrinkled face openly set in satisfaction of winning a round with someone of her stature. He motioned towards four unoccupied guards standing around Carol.
"Take this lovely lady to the brig, would you?"
The four men nodded in unison, stepping onto the platform and moving around Abigail in a barrier. The young woman maintained steady eye contact with Marcus, not making a move to follow as the guards seemed adamant to go.
"I will tell you one thing, Admiral," she murmured, eyes colder than the unending space that surrounded their ship. "When Khan does get on this ship, and he will, he will slaughter each and every one of you, walking over your cold corpses until he finds you. Oh, and when he finds you he will crush your skull between his hands like a grapefruit. Your death will be painful and bloody and executed with absolutely no remorse. Your death will be...final."
Another shudder ran through Abigail's body, slowly bringing her to her knees between the four men. The admiral stared at the brunette, fear flashing through his eyes as he quickly stood from his seat and moved forward.
"You heard me," he spat at the guards, "take her to the brig."
One of the men in front of the woman and to her right grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to her feet. He towed her off of the platform and into the hallway, the other three following tightly behind. Abigail violently tugged her arm free when she had regained her composure and followed in the middle of the four armed guards. They moved as a unit, the men far more uneasy than her, sharing wary glances as they came closer to their destination. As they reached a fork in the hall, memories flashed to her mind. Taking the left would bring them to the hangar which was empty and contained the airlock. The right would take them to the Med Bay, crew members' quarters, and the brig.
As they began to turn right Abigail struck with deadly precision. Her left hand shot out across her body, making contact with the man to her right's throat and paralyzing his vocal cords and trachea. She didn't even notice as he fell to his knees and she took the man behind her and to her left's surprise to her advantage, grabbing his right wrist and easily breaking his arm over her shoulder then sending him sailing through the air and into the guard who had dragged her off the bridge. Four sharp pew's rang out and echoed off the halls as bright light flew from the phaser in question and hit her in the chest. The woman staggered a moment before slamming the guard's head into the wall, effectively knocking him unconscious. She took the phaser and shot each man on stun for good measure before leaning against the wall and heaving in a few steadying breaths. The shots had hit her dead center of the chest, and she could feel the paralysis of a few minor muscles squeezing her lungs and heart.
Clamping her eyes shut for a few extra moments, Abigail steadied herself before hauling herself away from the wall and turning left at the fork in the hall. After a minute or two of passing doors to various engineering departments, and another muscle jolting wave of pain, she found herself opening the door that led to the hangar. Taking the stairs two at a time, she found the panel that would open the airlock. Strangely enough, it stated that it had been opened only a moment before. She frowned at the panel, calculating the time it would've taken Kirk to get Khan and space jump over to the ship. Had the former engineer of the Enterprise successfully allowed them access? A door slammed shut on the opposite side of where she had come from in the large room. Phaser in hand, she followed at an easy jog, although her body screamed at her to simply crumble on the floor and let the pain over take her.
Slipping silently through the door and quickly putting a long hallway behind her, Abigail came across a high ceilinged room filled with metal pipes, easily navigated by little spaces between the walls of engineering. The all too familiar sounds of a fight rang out from the other end of the room, and she quickly ducked behind a wall of tubes. She darted along the opposite side to the walkway on the other side of the pipes, finding the intruders in question. One was taller than the other, blondish hair flying, yellow Starfleet uniform, throwing one of the men from Marcus's private security into a wall of pipes. Kirk. The other a shorter man, with neatly kept reddish-brown hair, in a black uniform, punching a guard squarely in the face. The engineer.
As she looked on at the fight that was occurring, a large hand clamped over her mouth, a second arm latching around her waist and pulling her along the wall of pipes before spinning her around to face the owner of the arms. Automatically, Abigail brought the phaser up under the chin of her assailant, eyes locked on their neck.
"Why don't you put that down, darling?" an all too familiar, deep voice said lowly in her ear. The hand retreated from her mouth slowly, as if to make sure that she would not yell or scream once it was gone.