"Yes, I'm starting to understand now…I can't believe that I have lived so long without the link. To think I spent all these years trying to fit in as a solid. Such wasted years."

They were alone in their quarters. He didn't know how long it had been and he didn't care, all he knew was he craved the link and nothing else mattered anymore. They were sitting on the bed hands joined together into one pearlescent liquid.

"My dear Odo, don't think about the past any more. No more regrets. You'll never need to be alone again, you have a place now with me, with the Great Link."

Odo looked down at their hands and let himself give into the changeling before him. The liquid traveled up their arms then their torso. Odo's was filled with ecstacy when the station shook.

The interruption broke their concentration and with it their link.

"What was that?"

"Ignore it."

"I can't Odo." She said, standing up. "Stay here and I'll sort this out."

"You mean you're leaving? But...I-"

"I'll be back soon."

She let her hand rest on his shoulder before she hurried out of his quarters. When she left Odo, her pleasant expression changed. She did not like being interrupted.


She found him in ops busying away. She had never seen the place so busy before, Cardassians running around between the loose cables of consoles that had been forcefully pryed open. No doubt they were trying to fix the problem before she could even find out what the problem was.

Weyoun's face paled when he caught sight of his God.

"Weyoun! What is the meaning of this?"

The Vorta immediately turned to greet the Founder with arms out and palms up. He couldn't bare making eye contact. He kept his head bowed low as he spoke.

"Forgive me Founder, but..." Weyoun took in a lungful of air before he was brave enough to give the news. "The station's computer has been attacked."

She kept calm, which only served to unnerve Weyoun more.

"How bad is the damage?"

"Not bad." He replied, still avoiding her gaze. "The main systems are safeguarded but deactivating the mind field will take more time. I have diverted all resources to fixing the anti-graviton beam so we can take down the field as soon as possible."

"Have you now. Do you want me to thank you? You know Weyoun I didn't have to place you in charge. I thought I could trust you and I don't know why you would betray me like this."

Weyoun's face drained of the little color he had left. He began to quiver.

"No p-please, Founder. You can trust me."

"Really? As I see it, the evidence suggests the contrary. Tell me, was the perpetrator the one who has been causing all the malfunctions across the station?"

"Yes, Founder. Elim Garak, an ex-agent for the Obsidian Order now working for Starfleet."

"You see I thought I told you to take care of him and now I find out he's done even more damage. Do you enjoy disobeying my orders?"

"No. Never. I would never disobey a Founder...He is in custody now with Dukat."

"A little late isn't it?" She sighed, there wasn't much she could do. "Elim Garak...we don't need him alive do we?"

"I didn't think so but Dukat seems to think that he may not have been working alone. He's trying to get that information as we speak."

She thought about his words before she replied.

"Better still, get Dukat to convince our prisoner to join the Dominion. His skills and knowledge about Starfleet may be useful. He shouldn't be difficult to convince-I suspect he is misguided. He is only a Cardassian after all."

"As you wish."


Garak's body felt heavy. He tried to move as little as possible. Every now and then he adjusted his position to lessen the pressure he was placing on his broken ribs.

He was allowed to rest a while, lying on the cold floor as Dukat was called outside by Weyoun. He wasn't sure where he was in the station. Holding cells were normally 3-sided rooms with the fourth as a forcefield. They even provided a bench to sleep on.

He, on the other hand, found himself in a box room. It was small, walls painted light grey and absolutely nothing save for a control panel next to the door that was currently preventing his freedom.

Ordinarily, his sense of claustrophobia would be overwhelming him but at the moment it seemed insignificant to his new fear.

He lifted his hand to trace a small scar just below his collarbone. He wasn't sure when it happened, sometime during his last blackout he suspected, but Dukat managed to get his hands on a torture device and sewn it deep into his chest. The irony wasn't lost on him that his very own invention was going to be used against him.

So far he had been able to resist betraying the Major. Apart from a few broken ribs, Dukat had done little to break down his defenses. Although, he wasn't sure why he was eager to keep their collaboration a secret, as it did little to serve his purpose. He wanted to think it was because he didn't want to give Dukat the satisfaction of thinking that he had won. But years of having Ziyal as his conscience made him a better person.

He broke out his reverie when the new familiar beeping sound reverberated around the room. His hand sprung back to its original position, cradling his head as he slept.


"What do you want Weyoun?" snarled Dukat. He was enjoying his session with Garak. He had yet to gain any information but he gained all the satisfaction he needed, seeing him broken, squirming and at his mercy. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Evidently."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm saying that it has been hours and you haven't been able to get him to admit to…well anything."

"These things take time."

"I understand that, but it does seem to me that you're in no rush."

"Perhaps I would be more successful without interruptions such as these. Now if you have else to say, why don't you crawl back to your precious shapeshifter."

"The Founder" he emphasised. "wants you to convince our prisoner to join the Dominion."

"What?! You must be joking! She wants that fool working for her?"

"The Founder feels his skills and knowledge may be useful to us."

"Ha." He barked.

"Whether you believe it or not, all that matters is that the Founder thinks he will be useful."

Dukat was shaking his head in disbelief.

"Remember Dukat, you are the leader of the Cardassian people. What could be more satisfying than seeing one's enemy doing one's bidding."


"Garak. Wake up!"

Garak didn't credit his voice with a response.

"I know you can hear me, there's no use pretending you can't."

Still no response

"Perhaps, I can do something to help you wake up."

Knowing his habits already, Garak tensed his stomach. Seconds later, Dukat kicked him with great force. His body writhed in response to the impact as all the air was forced from his lungs.

Dukat watched as he gasped for air. It took him several minutes to get air back into his system. Each breath sent sharp pain to his chest. He finally managed to reply, between breaths, to his captor.

"I'm trying...to sleep...Dukat...you're making that...very difficult."

Dukat walked over to him and crouched next to him.

"Look at you Garak, you're pathetic." Dukat whispered into his ear. "You're a mess and what for? -the Federation? They don't care about you."

He stood up again and walked around. He donned the voice that he used to win the heart of the Cardassian people.

"You know they're afraid of Cardassia. Always have been. They are afraid of the greatness she can achieve. She deserves no more than the Alpha Quadrant. And we're the ones that can give it to her. We've always fought on separate sides but don't you see- don't you see how great we can be. You should be fighting by my side, on the side of Cardassia."

Garak had let Dukat go on until he got his voice back. "Great speech. Only one problem though. If you were on the side of Cardassia, you wouldn't be working for the Dominion."

Dukat chuckled.

"I know deep down you care about Cardassia, even though you don't always show it. I'll let you in on a little secret...The Dominion are just a means to an end. Signing a treaty with Dominion changed everything. We're strong now and the price to pay is small if you consider the prize. The entire Alpha Quadrant. Once we're in power, of course, we'll get rid of the Founders."

It was Garak's turn to laugh though it sounded more like a cough.

"How? Send in the Borg? Then what?"

"You have so little faith in our people, it makes me sad. We'll find a way."

"Sounds like a great plan."

"You dare mock me." Dukat's patience was beginning to run thin.

"I don't need to, those shapeshifters do it for me. Cardassians don't see you as a leader they see you as a lapdog serving it's master. The second they don't need you they'll kill you. You, me, anyone they haven't genetically engineered to meet with their expectations."

"That's not true. We have a contract."

"A contract! You do have a sense of humor. Do you think they'll care about a piece of paper or a kind word between friends? You'll be begging at their feet pleading them to spare you."

"You didn't see what I saw Garak. Our people on the streets, no place to go. Starving. If you did, you'd understand."

He did understand and that was the point.

"...and they won't just come for you. Think about what they'll do to Ziyal."

"Enough!"

Suddenly, Garak's entire body convulsed uncontrollably. Garak gritted his teeth to stop himself crying out and he clenched his hands until he could feel his nails dig into the bones in his hands. All his pain receptors were being flooded with electricity. His mind began to cloud and his vision darkened as he felt himself slip into unconsciousness.


She had to find Garak. It seemed that their plan worked but she wasworried she expected to have heard from him by now. He must have been found and either he was killed or taken into custody. For her conscience she decided to believe in the latter.

Ordinarily, it would only require seconds to find him. The computer could scan all the lifeforms on the station and all the Major would have to do is pick out the anomaly. However, only main systems were running and all manpower was diverted to fixing the part needed to deactivate the mines.

Her only choice was to fix the internal sensors. The process had taken her hours, so she had to assume that Garak was in no immediate danger.

She looked around her console in ops. The room was dimmer than usual. There were lots of Cardassians running around here and there trying to fix systems as fast as possible. It served as good distraction, they were too busy to see what she was up to. She had just run the diagnostics on the internal scanners for what felt like the twentieth time and thankfully they came back positive.

First, she scanned for all Cardassian life forms. A thousand tiny white dots popped up onto the map on her console. Narrowing her search to those Cardassians without identification from the computer caused the white dots to quickly blink out of existence, leaving 20 or so dots left. The one that caught her eye was the one in the top left corner of the map in one of the inhabited sections of the station.

"What are you doing here Major?" Came a voice behind her.

Kira's reflexes kicked in. She cleared her search data with a tap on her console and quickly turned around to face Weyoun, hiding the console with her body.

"I work here remember, is there a problem?"

"That depends…" Weyoun leaned towards the console only to be stopped with an innocent looking Major who moved to block his view. "As of this morning you have no duties here which makes me wonder what you were doing on your console that was so interesting."

"If you're going to accuse me of something I would rather you spit it out now otherwise I'm leaving."

"I wasn't accusing you Major-"

"Good."

She made an abrupt exit. When she got into the turbolift she was able to exhale.


Ziyal was in her quarters listening to Delem's fourth Symphony. It was one of her favourites. She never enjoyed Cardassian music, she found that it lacked the passion and complexity of the Bajoran equivalent. It wasn't until Garak introduced her to Delem that she really began to listen. It seemed a shame to her that Delem had never been appreciated in the Cardassian culture often deemed as too "radical" by critics.

She had just finished a new painting, the colours were vibrant and the flowers were lifelike but there was something not quite right with it. She had planned on sending a piece to the Cardassian council of art under an assumed name. Ziyal was proud to be known as Dukat's daughter but she didn't want the council to be influenced by her father's name. Art could be so subjective and she wanted a real opinion, one that she suspected neither her father nor Kira would give.

She had been staring at it for sometime but she couldn't figure out what it needed. Did it need something more or something less?

"Computer stop recording."

The lilting sounds of the Cardassian string section stopped. She hoped that it was the distraction that was holding her back but she was still as lost as before. On a whim, she grabbed the piece of paper and scrunched it up. She knew she could do better. She walked to the replicator to recycle it when the door beeped.

"Come in."

It was Kira. She walked right in and spoke quickly.

"I need your help."

"You know that whatever it is I'm happy to help."

"There is no way to put this delicately but Garak's here on the station."

"Really? That's great!"

Ziyal's initial reaction turned to worry.

"But it's dangerous for him to be here now. I thought he was on the Defiant."

"I thought so too but he's somehow made it onto the station and has planned some kind of one man assault on the Dominion."

"What do you mean?"

"For one thing he shows up in the middle of the night and tells me to build him a bomb."

"That's what the shaking was. No one would tell me."

"It seems his plan was a success and hopefully he bought enough time for the Defiant to get here."

"Where is he?"

"That's the thing, he hasn't been in touch since. I suspect your father had him in custody."

Hearing this, Ziyal automatically went to the door.

"Ziyal, where are you going?"

"I have to find my father and tell him to let Garak go."

"No, you can't do that."

"He'll listen to me. I can help."

"I know but not like that. If you confront Dukat now he'll deny any knowledge of Garak on the station. He might move him or get one of his men to kill him and pretend he had no idea."

"He wouldn't do that."

"Maybe not…but we can't risk it."

"Well what do we do? We have to do something."

"We have to find him first so your father can't deny his knowledge of his presence."

"Where?"

"I have an idea. Come with me."


"I've never been here before."

"I think that's the point."

"It's so…empty."

The place hadn't really been touched since the Cardassian occupation. Kira knew of Bajorans who were sent here for solitary confinement. People were taken and nothing was seen of them for months on end. When they finally returned they had become shells of what they once were, without passion, without life. They just did what they were told for there was nothing was left of them to fight back.

The station has never been busy enough to need the extra space and no one wanted to visit. Kira had been curious to visit but she always held back. In this case, there were extenuating circumstances.

The Major was glad to note that the room at the end of the corridor stood out from the rest. For one thing the control panel was illuminated, for the other it was the one she was looking for.

"It's this one."

Ziyal just nodded her head, letting Kira take the lead. Kira unholstered her phaser and fired it directly at the control panel. The panel crackled with electricity and the front burst from the wall. The door compliantly slided open to reveal the man they were looking for.

Ziyal was shocked. She had never seen Garak vulnerable before. He always projected onto her the impression that he was untouchable and that facade shattered instantly when they caught sight of his body curled up on the floor.

The momentary shock, however soon turned to concern.

She ran to his side before Kira could even respond and knelt beside him. Now she was closer she could better examine the bruises and cuts on his skin. A lump formed in her throat but she swallowed it instantly.

"Garak...Garak it's Ziyal. We've come to help you.

She placed a tentative hand on his cheek.

Garak stirred at her touch.

"Garak..."

His eyes opened and immediate squinted at the light hitting his retinas.

"Zi-yal?"

"Yes it's me."

"I-I can't move."

I wonder if any of you are wondering what happens if Garak meets his present self. Or if there just one Garak now. I've only just figured it out and I feel quite excited. Stay tuned! and r&r please. Makes me happy when you do.