Hi. Yes, I know that it's been a rather long time, but I suppose that with all of my school and such, there really wasn't much avoiding it.
This chapter is very much T. If you don't remember what it exactly was about from the last chapter, I suggest you proceed with caution. As well as some content that usually doesn't make it into my fictions- marriage.
No. NO This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. This wasn't supposed to happen. This... A single tear threatened to squeeze itself out of Khan's eye.
The entire canyon was ablaze. Smoke plumes rose high into the night sky. The orange flames licked at the stars. He could see the bright glow of lazer fire. The transport they had was an open cabin, so even the sound of the roaring flames were vaguely detectable.
Nala squeezed his shoulder. It did not grant him the usual feeling of assurance. "They will still be fighting. The battle is not over yet." The words did not console, but rather infuriated him. He gunned the engines and moved lower to the ground.
He looked up at her. "Nala, get the rifles; we're going to need them, I think."
Robin strode up to them. The five-year-old tugged on his adopted mothe ants leg. "Mama, Why does it smell like smoke?"
"Come, Robin; it isn't safe here." She picked him up and bundled him into a storage compartment refit to be sleeping area. She ducked as a huge transport rushed past them, and set down right at the rim of the canyon. Soldiers poured out of it and swarmed into the canyon.
They could now hear the lazer rifles igniting.
Nala handed him several rifles of their own. He left one in her hands. "If it comes to it, you need to defend yourself and Robin." He placed a light kiss on her lips.
He turned to look at his best friend, who was presently loading his M134 Minigun L-variant. "You got my back, John?"
John set the gun with a foreboding clack. "Always."
"Let's do it!"
Khan cut the engines, and the ship glided to a halt just before the troop transport.
He quickly dispatched the guards, and they both rushed into the chaos that enveloped the canyon. They fought in unison, one never pushing to far ahead of the other.
Khan looked around at the situation. It was hard to think past the soldiers that continually fired their lazer rifles at them. He surveyed the canyon floor. The ground was wet and muddy- obviously from the destroyed water tank. The other Augments were resisting as well.
"Check your fire, John! There are still Augments fighting!"
John simply laughed as he sprayed the canyon wall with lazer fire and gunned down a few dozen soldiers in the process. "Easy for you to say! You don't have a rotary!" His tone changed to somber. "Don't worry. I'll be careful!"
"I need to check the houses- see if there's anyone trapped; cover me!"
Khan rushed into one of the burning hovels to find several soldiers holding a family at gunpoint. He quickly freed the family, then tossed the father one of the laser rifles he had slung over his shoulder. Khan led them out of the house.
"Nahodha, get your family out of the canyon, then come back to help us here."
Nahodha dipped his head curtly, then guided his family away.
"Mr. FitzSimmons! Help!"
Benjamin Moran was fighting off droves of soldiers trying to enter his home. His father was slumped over right in front of the house.
Khan made a double take. Nicholas Moran laid still and unresponsive.
He looked around the canyon. Similar heaps laid all around in the mud.
The gruesome sight filled him with resolve, and he leaped into the fray.
Later...
The soldiers were gone. More properly, the soldiers were dead.
Khan looked around as he walked. There were... Likely hundreds of bodies lying still in the mud. Both soldiers and Augments.
He knelt down beside the body of a little girl. The child's eyes were wide in shock and horror at the soldier's brutality, and there was a large burn mark on the back her of shirt. Khan put his head in his hands. This wasn't supposed to happen. No one her age should have to face a horrible death such as this. He stood up.
He looked around at the other bodies strewn around the muddy canyon floor. He lifted his eyes to the starry sky. Tears began to flow freely down his cheeks. Entire families executed in the same, terrible way that the little girl was. The soldiers had trapped the elderly in their homes, and then lit the hovels on fire. Every single one of them was someone he knew- someone he held close.
John hurriedly ran up to him.
"William, come quickly."
He did not turn to look at his best friend. "What is it?"
John was on the verge of tears. "It- it's your family... You're not going to like this."
He whirled around on his foot and pushed past John, running to where his home was. John hurriedly followed him.
"Nahodha and Manfred found your mother and brothers in your house." Khan stopped in his tracks. "The roof collapsed while they were inside; we barely got them out."
Khan managed a glimpse inside the building that was at the moment engulfed in flames. He tried to get closer, but a hand grabbing his left arm kept him in place. He heard John's voice in his ear. "It's not safe. We can't afford to lose anyone else right now." Khan tried to shake John's grip loose. John refused to yield, and instead clenched his fist tighter. Khan felt his humerus collapsing in.
"Let me go! I've got to get them out," he wailed.
John pulled the distraught man away. He forced Khan to look him in the eye. "We cannot risk it."
"I've got to get them out!" Khan made one last effort to get to the hovel, and John collapsed his grip, crushing his friend's arm entirely.
Khan howled in rage and pain, then slowly knelt on the dirt, holding his arm. He began to weep over his lost family.
"We can't afford any foolishness on our part, Will. We just can't." John looked woefully at the burning house, the white spackle releasing terrible fumes into the air. "I would have gone in there to get them out- I would have, Will. But it was just too dangerous." He knelt down next to his friend. "We need everyone here- everyone. In mind and body. If it was any other situation, I would have gotten them out myself." He paused. "Remember. YOU are the leader by right of the Augments." He pointed to the remaining Augment families huddled in the shadow made by a rock outcropping in the light of the flames. "They need a leader."
Khan dried his tears and stood. He pointed to the house- using the arm that had already begun to mend itself after being crushed by John. "This is why we must fight, brothers and sisters. This is what will happen to all of us if we huddle in fear as mice and allow the scientists to rule over us and steal our children to make their armies." He could taste the growing patriotism in the air. He turned to face them fully. "Now, I am William Gregory FitzSimmons the son of our Khan, Robert Jedediah FitzSimmons; I now claim my blood right to take his place. Will you accept me as your leader?"
The canyon resounded with a cheer.
John strode up to Khan. "Very good speech," he commented. "The question is, can you keep your promises?"
"Oh, I can and I will." He quieted the remaining Augments down. "This is my newly christened general- John Philip Harrison. He is my second in command, and his orders are mine."
"Well, now, this will be fun," John muttered almost inaudibly.
"Now, the first order of business is to find a safe place in the caves to rest tonight. My wife Nala will take several of the housewives, Nahodha, and Yeong to find a suitable place to stay. The rest of the women and the children will remain here with Seth Strudwick and Casimiro... The men will come with me to salvage what we can of the homes, put out the fires, and bring out the lost to receive the Dues." He paused to think. "We will not let this deed go unpunished, but for now, we must keep hold of what little we have left. Let's go."
John leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. "There is no way we can put out these fires. It just isn't practical. We'd be better off to just salvage what little we can and leave. And counting up the dead will take a lot of time, and some of the Augments fled the canyon entirely. It will take too much time. More soldiers are going to come around here, and we can't afford to risk everyone else."
"John, I know that it isn't practical, and maybe it isn't even sanitary or safe, but all of our fallen deserve a proper burial. We mustn't simply leave them out here in the elements. It just isn't right." He paused. "And all of the soldiers will receive a burial as well."
"Now you're just being difficult. We do NOT have the time for that."
"We'll make time, John. We'll make time."
Well, what can I say?
Yes, I promised that you would have a Spock/Michael showdown, but... Yeah. I wanted to write it from a firsthand perspective...
Anyways.
Yeah, I know that I haven't been writing much, but I've lately been undeniably up to my ears in studies, and that makes things a bit hard.
Please review.
Please excuse grammatical errors.
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