Kirk reacted instantly. Reflexes honed by decades of intensive training acted of their own accord, yanking his phaser from his belt and lifting it up in preparation to fire. Not for nothing had he been named head of his class in marksmanship at the Academy.

But as fast as Kirk was, Khan was faster. His movements were languid and yet imbued with lethal speed. He fired once, and Kirk's weapon was ripped from his hand. The admiral hissed with the pain and pulled his hand close to his chest, trying to shield his burned fingers from the stinging air.

Okay, got to think of something else. You're unarmed, you're alone, everyone else is dead, mother of God, is this it?

Kirk's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden animalistic yell. David charged, rushing forward with his hands outstretched to seize Khan by the throat. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. His feet frozen with horror, Kirk could only watch as Khan casually turned his head to observe the young man who was rapidly closing in to throttle him. He seemed to wait an eternity until David was almost within arm's reach, then lifted his hand and lazily backhanded the younger man. David flew backwards at least two feet before crashing to the ground. He did not move.

Time sped up again as Khan turned to face Kirk once more. Kirk swallowed hard and waited for the killing shot.

"Fifteen years, my dear Admiral."

Kirk blinked. What was that?

"I have spent fifteen years in hell, in the torment that you set for me."

Sudden rage blossomed in Kirk's chest. Was Khan actually trying to paint himself as the victim here? The man had killed twenty people in his assault on the Enterprise, had been at least indirectly responsible for Terrell's death, and had just brutally murdered Saavik and presumably Bones and Chekov as well. And he was the one who had been wronged. Kirk's fury loosened his jaw, and words finally spilled out."The torment you earned! Thousands on Earth died at your hands! You tried to kill me and take my ship! I had every right to throw you out of an airlock -"

"The worst part of it all was that I thought we had a chance." Did.. did he just interrupt me? Is he even listening to what I'm saying? No, of course not, that would require considering an alternate point of view. "I had six precious months in which I believed that we truly did have a fresh start - that we could build something worthwhile on that world. Then Ceti Alpha VI exploded, and all of my dreams were dashed to pieces. All because of you, Admiral."

Khan spat the title, making it an insult. The hate and resentment in his voice penetrated Kirk's rage and wrapped cold, treacherous tendrils around his heart. So many times he had seen the poisonous fruit of hatred gobbled down whole by those who thought it would make them strong, and he had watched as it consumed them. But never had he seen something as terrifying as the Khan Noonien Singh who stood before him now.

This was a man who had dropped all pretenses of being in control of his anger. Khan had given himself up to the darkness, and it had devoured his soul. Now as they stood before each other once more, he didn't look like a man to Kirk so much as a puppet. No, puppet was the wrong term; more like a costume. There had once been a human being inside that skin, peering out from behind those black eyes. But that humanity had been swallowed by the oblivion of rage and despair, and now the darkness wore Khan as he had once worn it.

It was Khan's eyes. He wore a jovial smile, as though they were old friends talking about the weather. His voice was light, almost playful, like they were sharing some inside joke.

But his eyes were dead. Black and cold, like the depths of space out of which he had been reborn. There was no feeling there, no remorse, no mercy, not even anger or hatred. The only thing that could be discerned in Khan's lifeless eyes was steely purpose.

Kirk recalled a scene from an old Earth movie, his mind calling up the vision seemingly of its own volition. Other people's lives flash before their eyes; I get movie scenes. Wonderful. An old sea dog had been describing the great white shark, a predatory sea creature, and he had claimed that the most frightening thing about it was its eyes. "It has lifeless eyes, like a doll's eyes. And then it bites ya, and those eyes roll over white."

For the thousandth time in the last thirty seconds, Kirk regretted his invitation. "You're gonna have to COME DOWN HERE!" He hadn't thought Khan would actually do it.

Oh, Bones. I'm sorry.

"Well?" he snarled. "You were going to kill me, remember?"

Khan regarded him evenly, his smile still in place, eyes still dead. "Yes, I was, wasn't I? But now that I am here, I find myself wondering if that is really the best course of action. You see, Admiral, I suffered on Ceti Alpha V. I suffered immensely. Tomas was the first to die, on our third day. He tripped and cracked his skull on a sharp rock. Next was Colleen, two months later, mauled by a predator. Then Mariko and Kalyeem a week after that, killed in a cave-in. And ten lost in the catastrophe that ruined our world. I could list them all for you, Admiral, all the ones who died, all the ones we buried, all the ones I had to lose because of your mercy. I never forgot them. They haunt my dreams. I see them at night, standing before me: Mariko, with her ribcage and skull crushed, her abdominal cavity collapsed, one arm hanging by mere scraps of tissue from her shoulder, and she is still alive and asking me why. Erik, his body wasted by disease, standing there and asking why." The smile abruptly left Khan's face, to be replaced by a stonelike expression of hate. "My wife, with an adult eel hanging out of her ear, half inside her skull and the other half dangling free, standing before me and asking me why. My three-year-old precious daughter, strangled to death by a rebel, the marks from his fingers on her little throat, standing before me and asking, 'Papa, why?' And after all that suffering, Kirk, I can hardly believe that simply blasting you into oblivion is justice. You see, it is not just my suffering for which there must be compensation, but the suffering of all those before me as well, even those who never left Earth: those ended by the eugenicists before they ever began because they were imperfect, those of us who DIED fighting human wars that brought them no benefit, those who were murdered by humans who feared us before we ever laid hands upon them. You must pay for their suffering as well."

Kirk was only half listening. The other half was wondering what it felt like to die. Kirk had no illusions of escaping from this situation alive. No one on the Enterprise knew what had happened. No one knew Khan was there. Khan was going to torture and kill him, and that he knew for sure. But he could at least put up a good fight before he went, and maybe exterminate some of Khan's deluded sense of self-pity while he was at it.

"Oh, enough with your martyr complex already! Did you make them listen to that the entire time they were there? Because if so, it seems to me that you inflicted more suffering on them than the entire human race ever could have! You ATTACKED humankind! You slaughtered innocent people in your bloodlust! YOU were the monsters, not us! YOU did this! YOU started this! The Augments' blood lies on their own heads, not ours!"

The hate in Khan's face somehow grew even stronger. Kirk involuntarily stepped back. "You know nothing!" Khan bellowed, raising his phaser, his words about making Kirk pay apparently forgotten. Suddenly, like a providential gift, a rock flew by Kirk and struck Khan smartly in the temple. The superhuman staggered back, nearly knocked unconscious by the pain, blood pouring down the left side of his face. Someone snatched Kirk's arm, and he heard Carol shout, "Run!" And they ran.

They ran as though the devil himself were after them; Kirk wasn't so sure that he wasn't. He couldn't help but look back every few seconds, fully expecting to see Khan only a few steps behind them. But evidently the rock had done quite a number on Khan's head, for there was neither sight nor sound of him.

When they had run at least a mile, Kirk collapsed, nearly hyperventilating. "I can't," he gasped. "No further." He looked over at Carol. "You've been working out," he managed.

Carol laughed breathlessly. "First rule of living in space: stay in shape. You never know when you might have to crawl around the outside of the station in a massive spacesuit trying to find a single blown fuse."

"And the rock?"

"Hundreds upon hundreds of snowfights with David on Earth. I had a deadly aim by the time he was eight." Suddenly her face crumpled with pain, and she buried her face in her hands. "David," she whispered, and began to sob.

Sorry for the short chapters! I do my best, but I can only write and revise so fast. If I posted long ones, you guys would wait a week at least in between updates. Read and review please!