So here is the next chapter, the one with most of the ST:ID action in it. It jumps around a little as a result... so sorry!

I have to say, I might have squeezed in an extra scene, and made this the end of the story if not for two people who have made the original plot twist in such interesting ways, until now there is a whole new beast in my head. The two people are my father (who had a crazy "what if?" for me, yet again!) and ElizabethT1007, who had an excellent point about this story's Spock, which will be cleared up further in future chapters.

Many thanks to my beta, Amodestpoet, and my friend, TheWindowView, who both arguing plot points with me for this chapter and the previous.

Anyways, please read and enjoy!

"I cannot make that decision without the captain."

Nia's first thought was that she hated being knocked unconscious.

Her second was: Why does Spock sound so weird?

Her eyes opened, but the information was confusing. There was a… lot of red. Black too, and dark grays. When did the Enterprise get redone?

She blinked. The world came into focus.

She wished it hadn't. Beside her were the two broken forms of the security officers that were meant to stay behind. The red wasn't just the color of their shirts. She wanted to gasp, scream, scramble away, but she knew better. She'd been taught better.

Memory came back with a clap of clarity.

Nia wanted to thump her head against the cool metallic floor, raging at her own stupidity, but that in itself would be foolish.

Tilting her head slowly, Nia realized that she was directly beside Khan, the phaser in his hand pointed at her head.

Her eyes met his, and her blood chilled at the smile that slowly spread across his face.

"Oh look, Mr. Spock. Sleeping Beauty has awoken." He hauled her up, one hand tightly wrapped around her neck and threateningly close to everything vital.

Breathe, girl. Just breathe and think this through, Nia told herself. One thing was certain, playing down her current condition would only be in her favor. She slumped against his hold, blinking slowly, and forced Khan to support more of her weight. It was a move meant to throw him off balance, to swing the situation in her favor. It might work, it might not.

Playing along as the groggy victim, Nia let her eyes flicker around the room before landing on the screen. "Spock…" she whispered, hoping that her husband would see through it all.

She was shocked to see her husband's mouth visibly tighten, his brows furrowed into a deep frown.

Khan was speaking. "Captain or not, if you do not lower your shields, I will kill your wife."

STSTSTST

When Kirk finally made it to the bridge, he saw exactly what he didn't want to see.

Both of his security officers were down on the ground, presumably dead, as Sargent was being held up on display. A small cut on her forehead was leaking a small trail of bright pink blood down the side of her face.

And worst of all, his commander was lowering the ships shields.

"Spock, no!" Kirk jumped forward, but it was too late.

Khan had found his people and transported them to the other ship.

Spock ignored Kirk. "Our agreement?"

Kirk motioned to two security officers. "Escort Mr. Spock from the bridge. He's been compromised."

Khan smirked. "What agreement, Mr. Spock?"

The two officers reached the half-Vulcan commander, found that he wasn't as easy to move as they expected. "My wife." The man bit out.

"Spock," Kirk stepped forward. The situation had spiraled so far out of his control and it was beyond disheartening to see that the commander wasn't as in control as he'd hoped.

STSTSTST

Nia understood what was happening. She understood that this had become a game to Khan, and no matter if he sent her back to the Enterprise or not, he still had the advantage. Shields were down and would have to stay down. Heck, given what happened earlier, the shields were worthless against this new brand of ship.

Maybe…

She still had her communicator on her. Was there some sort of failsafe she could find, with Scotty's guidance?

STSTSTST

Why was he taking the time to gloat? What was the point? Was it not clear to Khan that he had won? Or was the prospect of winning a source of arrogance and pride for the augment?

Frustration mounted inside Spock. There was no logic being played out, and the window for Nia to be beamed back to the ship was swiftly closing as he was escorted from the bridge and the captain gave the order to raise shields.

And then, just as Spock could no longer see the screen, time was up.

STSTSTST

Nia laid where she had been tossed aside, kicked in the ribs to stay down as Khan retrieved the torpedoes that housed his crew.

As her husband argued for her return, and Kirk declare him unfit for duty, Khan watched, amused. He opened smirked as Nia forced back the pain in her side, ribs definitely cracked now, to prop herself up on all fours. He was saying something, but she wasn't processing the words.

Suddenly, for one frightening moment Nia was airborne, no part of her touching the floor. Then the low deep sounds of what appeared to be several massive explosions vibrated through the ship and her body.

Before she even hit the floor, Nia knew that time was up.

She had to act now.

STSTSTST

Kirk gapped as he watched the explosions on the screen. "He armed the damn torpedoes," he muttered.

Sulu turned around. "Their weapons have been taken out." He grinned at the still present commander. "Not bad sir."

Kirk eyed his commanded. "That was one heck of a risk." He motioned for the security officers to let him go.

"I believe I am more aware of that than you are, Captain," Spock's replied, eyes never leaving the view screen. "Their bridge is undamaged?" Spock asked Sulu.

"Correct, sir," Sulu responded.

Slowly, Kirk nodded. "Commander Spock, you can't be here."

Spock's head snapped away from the screen to stare at Kirk.

The hard, blank look was one Kirk had seen before. He remembered it well from the moment just before the commander snapped and Kirk received the second worst beating of his life.

'You never loved her!'

'Ahhh!'

"This situation is too personal," Kirk slowly stated. "We will get her back, but you can't be here."

The commander opened his mouth to continue arguing when the ship powered down.

A crewman called out "Sir, the central power grid is failing!"

"Switch to auxiliary power," Kirk ordered.

Another crewman replied "Auxiliary power failing, sir!"

"Captain, our ship has been caught in Earth's gravity!"

"Are our comm systems still up?" Kirk asked. "Can we reach Engineering?"

Uhura shook her head. "Negative, Captain."

Kirk nodded once. "Lieutenant,get those comm systems online, and warn Starfleet that there are two starships crash landing. Mr. Sulu, you have the conn."

"Captain, should we not begin the evacuation protocol?"

Kirk's look was determined. "Yes, Commander, but evacuation won't happen unless we get some sort of stability in the ship, which we are quickly losing. I'm going to Engineering to see what can be done." With that, the captain turned and left the bridge at a run.

Sulu stood, and as was customary, sat at the Captain's chair. He spared a moment to give the commander an apologetic look as he strapped in. "Sorry, sir." Already the gravity stabilizers were failing. Evacuation had just become impossible.

Spock shook his head. "The Captain was most wise, Mr. Sulu."

Uhura gave him a bewildered look.

STSTSTST

When the ship stabilized out, whispers of a miracle bounced across the bridge. Spock slowly stood.

"There are no such things," he countered.

The communications system came back online and beeped. Sulu answered. It was Scotty.

"Mr. Spock, you need to get down here."

Without hesitation, the Vulcan bolted out of the room.

Seconds after he left, a second beep sounded.

Uhura cried out, "We are being hailed from the other ship!"

"Spock? Kirk? Can anyone hear me?"

Sulu grinned. "Dr. Sargent, you're alright?"

"Not for long Mr. Sulu. I need to override the command protocols on this ship. Do you know how?"

"I'll patch you through to Engineering."

"Quickly. I have no time."

STSTSTST

When Nia had left the bridge, she thought she had been clever. She thought she'd be able to do something, get something done.

Instead, she found herself in trouble. Instead, she was trying to hack into a Federation Starship computer when she had absolutely no skills in doing so.

Her frantic attempts at using her communicator to contact the Enterprise came up with nothing. Either Scotty had used a different style communicator earlier, or something had gone terribly wrong with her ship.

"Come on, come on," Nia muttered as she tried again to contact the other ship.

Finally it went through. She reached Sulu. For some reason everyone was in Engineering.

STSTSTST

Scotty stood still at the containment door, watching and waiting as his captain pulled himself to the door and started the decontamination process. It would be too little, too late for Kirk, but his body could later be safely retrieved.

The communicator at his hip chirped.

"Scotty?"

The Chief Engineer stared at his communicator in shock.

"Lass? You're alive?"

"So is Khan. He's set the ship on an impact course with San Francisco. Tell me you know how to change that," Nia pleaded with him.

"I can get you to the screen, but with that ship you need an admiral's passcode, and sorry lass, but I'm fresh out of those."

He heard thumping on the door behind him.

As if she heard him, Nia asked "What about Kirk? He's the type to have one or two of those in his head." The desperation in her voice was painfully clear.

"Lass," Scotty's voice softened. "He's not in a good way right now."

There was a brief moment of silence across the communicator. "Scotty, I'm sorry, but as long as he can speak… This ship will destroy at least half of the city if we don't do this."

There was knocking again on the glass. Scotty spun on his heel and knelt next to his captain. "Yes, sir?"

Kirk smirked weakly. "Admiral Pike's passcode." He slowly enunciated each letter and number, along with the segment meant for inputting the sequence by hand instead of by voice.

She did so, and successfully locked in the new destination. A small, watery laugh carried over the communicator.

"It worked," she cried. "It worked."

Kirk smiled. "You get back here safely," he replied, forcing himself to be jovial. "I can't take care of your husband for you. Not anymore."

Her voice came across uncertainly. "Kirk, are you…?"

"Afraid so."

"Oh, please no," Nia said.

"See why you have to be safe, now?" Kirk replied, knowing he wasn't being fair.

A choked sound was heard. "Safe through a crash landing. Right." Silence. Then "Khan's here. I have to go."

When it was clear she was gone, Scotty snapped the communicator shut. "You've done the best you could, Captain. For her and the rest of us."

Kirk's eyes weren't on him, though. Not anymore. Instead, they had drifted up to the man behind him.

Spock's jaw was locked, hand clenched at his sides. He knelt next to Kirk as Scotty stood to get out of his way.

"The ship?"

"Out of danger. You saved the crew."

"You used what he wanted against him. That's a nice move."

Spock admitted "It is what you would have done."

Kirk nodded. "And this is what you would have done." He smiled. "Better it was me. You have a family, a wife to rescue." Even as he spoke, his face began to crumple. "I'm scared Spock. Can you help me not be?"

The words hit Spock like a physical blow, honing in on the greatest failure of his existence. Saline gathered and welled up in his eyes and he suddenly struggled to breathe.

Kirk saw the struggle on his face. "How do you choose not to feel?"

"I do not know," Spock admitted, saline running over and turning to tears. "Right now I am failing." He'd failed so much on this mission it seemed.

"I want you to know, why I couldn't let you die."

Spock shook his head, a ghost of a smile crossing his lips, remembering what his wife had said. "Because you are my friend."

Pain bloomed in his chest as Spock watched his friend, his dear friend, struggle to hang on, struggle to live. He fought so valiantly for everyone else, and now, now he was fighting for himself with nothing left.

His face twitched, muscles briefly with the very physical struggle Kirk was going through… And then he went still.

Still as stone.

With all emotion wiped from his face.

As Spock gazed at his friend, he felt the visceral moment of choice. Despair or rage.

He picked rage.

STSTSTST

If Khan had a moment to think beyond his fury, beyond his need to take out as many of the worthless humans as he could, he might have been impressed.

The Paladian woman may have just been a scientist, but she had been busy since she had been captured by her own people. As a result, she'd bruised him where her captain had failed to do so. She'd tricked him and locked in a new destination while he gave chase. He was going to kill her. It would be his final blow to the Enterprise, his only revenge left available.

When got his hands on her, he was going to enjoy crushing her ribs. It would take longer than it would with a human.

That made it all the better.

Nia could feel the dark emotions rolling off him, could taste them, smell them. It was something she'd discovered to be singular to the kind of men that tortured her. To the kind of people who enjoyed causing pain, who reveled in the suffering of others. She could feel when he got closer to her when he just about found her by the intensity of the raw anger coming off of him. His emotions battered hers, her Paladian sixth sense blown open by her panic and fear, the blocks Spock had spent so much time helping her put up around that sense were blown away.

He could probably feel her too. It might be why he found her so easily each time, why his steps always paused when he was about to walk another direction. Maybe he recognized that brief flare of hope followed by prolonged flares of anxiety meant.

Nia almost wanted to confront him, to end this game of cat and mouse that was playing havoc on her. Almost. The only thing stopping her was the remembering that if she gave in too quickly, if she made that gamble and lost, if she stopped being his sole focus… there might be enough time for him to figure out how to change the destination again.

She kept up the chase, firing at him with her found phaser, just barely missing because he was too damned fast.

When they hit the surface of the water, both of them were thrown in the air. The ship bounced and they were tossed again.

She hit a pipe and clung to it, like the climbing champion she was.

STSTSTST

The bridge crew of the Enterprise watched as the enemy collided with the Pacific Ocean, miles off shore.

Spock returned to the bridge. "Search the enemy ship for signs of life."

"Sir…" Sulu wanted to contradict him, to tell him there was little hope, but he couldn't do that. He was too human, it seemed.

"Just do it," Spock snapped.

Sulu swallowed. "Yes, sir." The scans begun. "Sir, we've found two!"

One was running. The other, clearly chasing.

"Can we beam them up?"

Chekov responded with a negative. "But it may be possible to beam you down sir."

Uhura touch his arm. "Go. She needs you."

"Get me coordinates for that one," he pointed to the one giving chase. "That's Khan."

STSTSTST

Nia had dreamed of running on the outside of a starship before.

The reality was a nightmare.

The large and severely damaged structure was rapidly sinking, but that didn't stop explosions and bursts of flame from existing. She had to dodge over jagged metal and live wires as she gave chase.

With the crash, the game had changed. Khan, having survived, saw his moment to escape.

Nia knew she couldn't let him get away. When they reached a flatter part of the ship to be running on, the winds gusted against Nia in different directions, tossing her hair in her face, and obscuring her vision. She was forced to rely on her empathy some, to feel where he was heading.

A blast of rage threw her off course though, and she reeled away from the source.

Spock had transported next to her.

Startled, she stared at him a moment. She'd never seen that look on his face. That kind of fury… that kind of hate.

She stumbled back from him, heart in her throat. "Spock?" She asked.

His look softened some. "Niniane…"

Clearing her throat, she jerked her head to where Khan had just jumped into the ocean. "He's getting away."

His chin jerked and together they restarted the chase.

Nia had forgotten how much faster than her that Spock could be. He ran, full on, at Khan's last position. Dove into the water after him.

Nia's breath caught. The struggle between the two men ensued in the waters within arm's reach of the edge of the ship.

Honestly, Nia had forgotten to breathe the moment her husband had jumped in. She'd never known he could swim, and had assumed not considering he'd been raised on a desert planet.

She caught her breath when she saw that there was a metal platform or broken metal, or something that they were both standing on. Spock must have jumped in and grabbed a hold of Khan and pulled him back onto the platform.

Khan may have been strong, but Nia could see that he was no match for Khan's rage. She had her phaser, but they were too close together for her to have any confidence using it.

The tension in her chest mounted until it hurt as she watched her husband get struck across the face and to the midsection.

Desperate, she fired over their heads, hoping to be a distraction of sorts.

It worked.

Khan looked for the source, for a fraction of a second, but it was enough for Spock to pin him down, fists beating repeatedly across his enemy's head.

When Khan stopped fighting, Nia waited for Spock to stop as well.

He didn't.

She waited longer.

Spock still didn't stop.

"Spock!" She called.

He didn't hear her, or ignored her.

She could feel the red haze that had taken over him. It was so much stronger than anything she'd ever felt, personally or from him, and she knew he'd lost his ability to reason. If she didn't do something, if she didn't try and stop him, he was going to kill Khan with his bare hands. Maybe it would be worth it to Spock later, but maybe it wouldn't. She didn't want to take that chance.

Jumping into the water, she hissed against the cold that reached her chest. Struggling forward she fought against the swirling sea to get to the pair. When she was still an arm's distance away, she grabbed Spock around the back of his neck.

She reached deep inside and flooded him with as much determined calm as possible. When his breathing began to settle, and his emotions became less potent, less severe, she pulled away from him. Then she wrapped a hand around a nearly unconscious Khan's wrist and pushed as her bone deep exhaustion and weariness onto him. He further went limp against Spock's hold.

Spock hit him one last time, sending Khan deep into his own head. He lifted his limp body and placed him on a spot shallow enough, he couldn't float away and tied his limbs with wiring that he tore from the ship.

Then, Spock dragged Nia to his chest and wrapped his arms tight around her.

Leaning fully into his embrace, Nia wound her arms through his and clutched him tightly to her. The muscles of his back that her hands stroked trembled beneath her fingertips. She felt his face bury in her dirty, scraggly hair. He pushed it back with one hand as he leaned his head back. Then he soundly kissed her.

The sound of a transporter broke them apart.

Uhura was standing on the dry, but soon to be submerged part of the ship, an almost smug look on her face.

"Glad you left him alive," she called, pointed at the augmented male. "McCoy says he can use him to save Kirk."

Nia touched her fingers to her lips. "Oh thank goodness." She rested her head against Spock's shoulders as an impossible relief surged through them. "We'll all owe McCoy a real nice bottle of whiskey after this."

"Bourbon would be a better choice," Spock countered

Chuckling, Nia let him lift her to where Uhura was standing. "Right," she nodded. "Mint juleps. I'd forgotten."

As he went back to retrieve Khan, a hand fell on her shoulder. Nia turned, smiled at Uhura.

"It's over," the other woman said.

Nia didn't reply and let her eyes drift off towards the shore line. It was too soon to be the judge of that.


A/N: Buh buh bum... Like I said earlier, there's a whole new beast in my head. Probably only a few chapters longer, but we'll see.

My reviewers! Thank you, thank you to ElizabethT1007, rozzi80, Teddy bear 007, angel897, and Amodestpoet

You all are awesome.

-Spirit Speaker :)