Erica had challenged Khan to throw everything he could at her when it came to her training. After weeks of training and then the torturous combat training, she had discovered more potential than she thought she possessed. Her stubborn nature no longer blinded her, she no longer felt such intense anger toward him, and her skills were only improving. Erica continued to do the exercises Khan gave her to do before they did the combat and fight training. Although Khan was much stronger than she was, he always made sure not to use more of his strength than necessary with her since she was still just a human, no matter how much better she was getting. Since he was not changing the amount of strength he was using with her, it was easier to see just how much she was improving.
Khan was thoroughly impressed with his protégé, he never thought she would improve so significantly and in such a short amount of time. He knew that she had the ability to be a fierce fighter, and she finally showed it. Erica was evolving, a darker and more ferocious side of her had emerged and it made her look stronger and she also had a new confidence built up within her. It was a remarkable sight. The wounded woman he had taken under his wing and treated and trained, no longer existed. She was a changed person, and he knew that she would be able to be a very important factor in his plans to get revenge against Marcus. Then again, she too wanted revenge for her father being murdered. They were very alike in their desires to see Marcus suffer and die. Seeing how willing and determined she was to fight and learn from him, he still continued to work with her.
And yet...as time passed, Khan found himself changing as well. His mind and body weren't changing, however another part of him seemed to be changing. His heart. Khan found himself growing steadily fonder of Erica as she continued to excel in her training. Because she was becoming much stronger, confident and focused, he admired her more. While she was just a human, he had never seen one who was so driven. She had become, in his eyes, extremely attractive. While she had always been physically beautiful in his eyes, even when he had been very cold toward her, he could not have denied her beauty. Now, he was finding that her strength, intelligence and her dedication certainly made her far more attractive.
This was very, very bad.
Khan never had anticipated that he would have grown so fond of Erica. Now he was walking a very thin line...he could very easily lose his balance and find himself in a freefall. One leading to falling in love. He could not surrender his heart, the only people who mattered to him were the seventy-two members of his crew. Erica did matter to him, very much, but he could not allow himself to love her. Weakness, displaying emotions, was not an option for him. While he inwardly fought these feelings, never giving Erica any shred of evidence of this, he managed to keep himself focused whenever they trained. Khan would not change their plans. He would continue to train with her, and then when he was ready to tell her his plan for revenge he would sit her down and tell her every detail, including how he wanted her to factor in. All of her training would serve very well.
Erica never knew of the brewing affections Khan was feeling for her, he hid all of this so well from her. All she could do was train as instructed. What did change though was the intensity of their combat training. Sometimes Khan would pause at times, looking at her in a way she could not understand or read. Suddenly he would fight her like a vicious beast. She took it as a challenge to see how fast she could react and fight. And she rose to this challenge every time, showing him that she really was able to fight him and take everything he threw at her. Just as she originally wanted.
While Khan should have been proud of her and told her this, he was finding himself only growing fonder of her as she met every challenge, and this only made him more frustrated. Even when he tried to find a way to break her, to make her show some sort of weakness, she always found a way to impress him and show that she was no longer the woman he once thought she was when they first began. No matter what he did, he could not dismiss these feelings he had for Erica. Sometimes he would get so frustrated that he would just end their training sooner than usual and retreat to his bedroom, unable to look at her. He could not face her or else he might do something that he would regret.
This behavior confused Erica. She didn't mind the challenging routines now, but the way he looked at her and how he would suddenly dismiss her from their training and just stay hidden away from her.
"I'm sorry, Erica. I'm afraid I cannot continue today," he told her after only minutes of training one day.
Erica stared back at him, relaxing her stance. "This is the fourth time you've done that this week. Khan what is going on? Is something wrong?"
He couldn't even look her in the eye, Khan only stared at the floor. "Yes...I'm fine. I just have several things on my mind right now."
"Why can't you tell me?" she asked. "Isn't there anything I can do to help?"
Khan shook his head. "No. Just continue your exercises alone," he told her flatly.
Biting her lower lip she thought about doing as he said, but because this had been something he was doing more and more as of late, she couldn't wave it off so easily. Khan was all she had right now. He was her mentor and in a way her protector. Saving her life well over two months ago and then bringing her to London to be far away from Starfleet, he had done so much for her and to see him acting this was ways almost distressing her.
"Khan, please I can tell something is really weighing you down. Isn't there anything I can do?" she asked, tentatively reaching out her hand to touch his shoulder.
Noticing her do this he stepped back once, putting distance between them and finally looking her in the eye sternly. "No. I said I was fine. I appreciate your concern, however it is not needed. What I do need is for you to take my word and listen to me when I say I am completely fine and I just want you to continue your training alone. Are we clear, Erica?"
Her brow furrowed a little in surprise. She hadn't heard him speak so coldly in ages. Something must be really bothering him that he didn't want her to know about. Those piercing pale-green orbs stared back at her in such an intense manner that she almost felt his gaze burning into her skin. Swallowing a bit she nodded, unwilling to press this issue any more.
"Yes," she replied.
"Good," he hissed before briskly walking out of the room and directly toward his bedroom before shutting the door behind him.
Erica stared at the door, still very confused by all of this. Maybe he was worried about their plans for getting revenge on Starfleet. He had still not told her how he planned to carry out those plans, nor had he told her what her involvement would be. Maybe he was still angry about his crew being taken from him, possibly destroyed by Marcus. Seeing Khan this way she wanted to help him. She wanted to make this easier for him somehow, but he was so good at shutting himself off from her emotionally and physically. He wouldn't even come out of his room for hours and even when he did he barely spoke to her. Had she done something wrong?
Unknown to Khan, Erica too felt different as of late. Her anger toward him which first existed in the beginning had gone away completely. She respected him and considered him her only friend, even though their relationship really wasn't necessarily an amiable one. It was a mentor/student relationship overall. But he had saved her life, bringing her back from the brink of death with his blood even though he never had to. Khan had sympathized with her, sort of, because they were both very angry and desiring revenge on Marcus for what he had done to them both. More than that he had changed her life, training her to be a far better and fiercer fighter than she had ever been before. Everything he had done for her was positive, and it made her grow more and more fond of him. More than that, she felt as if she was...falling in love with him.
Never in her life, never had she found herself feeling any sort of affection for any man in her life. Certainly she had been approached by men before, men who tried to woo her and win her affections, but she knew their intentions were. All of them found her physically attractive, not her intelligence or her strength. All of their reasons were shallow and not worthy of her time. Erica's heart finally found itself beginning to beat with new life. Khan had been inspiring new emotions in her, ones which she was scared to admit or act upon. He was incredibly handsome to her, but her reasons for loving him stemmed from everything he had been doing for her. It wasn't until later that she realized how attractive he was. As the days passed, these feelings for him gradually increased, all against her better judgment. She knew Khan wouldn't love her. A human. He just needed her help, and she would do whatever he needed. But after they sought revenge, what would happen to them? Erica was sure he would probably go his own way, leaving her alone to survive once more on her own in hiding from Starfleet. That was a life she could never go back to. Not after what she would likely be doing. She could foresee so much danger and death ahead for them. She would do her best to keep them both alive and to succeed in whatever Khan had planned for them. Soon he would be telling her, she had a very strong feeling that it was the case.
Swallowing back her emotions, Erica sighed and obeyed Khan's directions. She went right to work on her exercises. Her mind would occasionally wander back to her feelings for Khan, which did make her feel a bit depressed knowing that he was shutting her out and not letting her know what was upsetting him, and he was never going to return her affections. She was finding that she was a bit weak, almost surrendering her heart. It could only end badly if she allowed this to continue.
Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter was a bit short, but the next one should be longer and certainly more exciting! I will do my best to get that one written soon! Thank you to everyone who has commented, I always appreciate your feedback! Thank you so much to everyone who has followed and favorited my story as well, I always appreciate my readers! :)
