Chapter Ten

Kodos was here.

He was standing right in front of him, just as handsome as he had been all those years ago. His auburn hair was lightly peppered with grey, mint green eyes glittering with mischief and an almost manic fondness when they landed on Jim. Yes he was handsome...and deadly.

The blond captain forced a stiff smile across his lips as the man stepped forward and held out his hand. Kodos smiled, a sick saccharine expression that was lost on everyone but the two of them.

'I'm home, darling.' It said and he fought not to snarl as the former governor spoke in that low, silky voice that still haunted his nightmares.

"Hello, I'm Anton Karidian leader of the Shakespearean trope of Jigan II."

Jim shook the offered hand, skin crawling in revulsion and stomach churning just from touching the demon of his past.

"Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Welcome to Tarsus." He replied softly and his eyes flashed in challenge to Kodos' own.

'I can play this game too.'

He released the man's hand and gestured to Tommy who stood beside him with a welcoming smile.

"And this is Thomas Leighton, Governor of Tarsus V."

Something dark flashed in Kodos' eyes and Jim suppressed a smirk, turning his gaze to the rest of the group, more importantly the two teen girls standing a bit behind Kodos.

The first was a girl he'd recognize anywhere. His beautiful Cassandra had grown into a beautiful young woman, all sleek curves and soft features, the last vestiges of baby fat stubbornly clinging to her heart shaped face.

Beside her was younger girl, only a year or so younger, with long blond hair the same shade as his own golden locks and bright electric blue eyes...also the same shade as his own. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that her facial structure was different she'd be a teenage female clone of him. Something about her seemed familiar but he put it off in favor of offering both girls a charming grin.

"Well, hello little ladies. To what do I owe the pleasure of such beautiful company?"

They giggled and the blond girl stepped forward nervously.

"M-Mr. Kirk, sir, I wanted to know if you would sign my shirt?" She whispered and he nodded.

"Sure thing..."

"Lenore, and this is my best friend Cassie."

He nodded once more. "Alright. Well unfortunately I don't have a pen or anything but I'll definitely sign it when we arrive at the Governor's mansion, kay?" She grinned and nodded rapidly and Kodos smiled at him.

"Thank you. She is a very big fan of yours." He grabbed Jim's hands and brushed his lips across the back, causing the young Captain to shudder in disgust and yank it away.

"No problem." He replied stiffly before turning to Tom. "Tommy we should be getting back."

His son sent him a worried look and glanced between him and Kodos, before nodding slowly.

"Alright. Lead the way, J."

Brother,

I have arrived safely on Tarsus V. The plan has been set.

Alexander Marcus smiled darkly as he read his little brother's message, dark eyes glittering with malice.

Everything was falling into place just as he needed it to and soon he would be able to establish the StarFleet as the strongest army in the galaxy...and soon Khan would be right back in his possession.

Things couldn't be better for him, yet he was unaware that as he sat smiling about his success...it was all slowly falling apart.

The plan they'd set into place to deal with Marcus and Kodos was relatively simple. They'd managed to set up a weak but secure connection with the Head of the federation and had started feeding him information, hacking Marcus' servers for information and then forwarding that information along.

They'd even managed to find a message from Marcus to Kodos announcing Jim's return to Tarsus, which they piggybacked and used to start hacking Kodos' servers. It was a slow tedious process, and it would take a week or so to complete but Khan was just happy that it was almost over.

Currently the Augment sat in the sitting room with both his and Kirk's crew, listening to them all talk about Kirk's strange behavior as they awaited the new arrivals. They had split into rooms the day before, and to his surprise he'd been partnered with the fiery blond as a room mate, an experience he was sure would be interesting.

"I'm just saying that Jim hasn't been himself since we arrived on the planet." The one called Sulu said, drawing the former war criminal from his thoughts.

Sihadlad frowned beside him.

"I do not understand your captain," She admitted. "He asks me to show him respect yet you all show him none."

Kirk's communications officer, Uhura smiled at her understandingly even as her comrades scowled at the perceived insult. To be perfectly honest, Khan didn't understand it either. He'd seen them all berate and jest with their captain as if he were a part of the crew and it made no sense. He was their captain, the head of the family, he should be above them, yet from what he'd seen the blond man was perfectly comfortable being among them.

"We respect Jim more than we respect anyone in the world. However, just because we respect him doesn't mean we have to treat him like a king. We call him by his name because he asked us to. He refuses to answer to Captain if he's off-duty and sometime even on Duty if you aren't an admiral. It's his way of acknowledging us as equals and showing us that he doesn't feel the need to be above us like some Captains do." The woman explained and Riley nodded.

"JT has always been like that. He hides it alot under cockiness and rudeness, but he cares for each and every person under his command as if they were the children he never had."

Many of the crew members nodded in agreement, even Commander Spock and , who added on to it.

"Of course with that affection comes this irritating habit of self-sacrifice. That man has absolutely no self-preservation."

There was a murmur of agreement among the Enterprise crew and Khan smiled slightly in the face of their loyalty. He could see now why Kirk had called his crew his family. Each person, from yeomen to Commanders were extremely loyal to the man who returned their loyalty with his own in spades. It was so reminiscent of his own crew that he couldn't help the way his heart melted in his chest.

The door to the sitting room opened and Leighton entered followed by Kirk and a group of twenty. They were all adults ranging from early twenties to late fifties, barring the two young teens on either side of Kirk chattering away about one subject or another.

"JT?" One girl asked and Kirk smiled down at her, swinging her up on his hip as if she weighed nothing.

Another one of his children?

"Hello Cassie."

She giggled and hugged him tightly before squirming from his grip and racing over to glomp Riley.

"Kev!" She shrieked and he chuckled holding her close.

"Hello, baby sis."

Well that answered that question.

The other girl watched in envy, then looked down sadly only to gasp when Kirk swung her up onto his hip with an easy grin and turned to the two crews.

"Everyone, this is the Shakespearean acting trope for the festival in a few days. They will be staying here for the duration of the festival hence the change in room assignments yesterday." He gestured to the man beside him, who smiled.

"This is their leader Anton Karidian and this," He gestured to the girl in his arms, who, Khan noticed bore a striking resemblance to him, "is his daughter Lenore."

The girl waved shyly then ducked to hide her face in Kirk's shoulder. A dark look passed over her father's feature, fast enough that no one but Khan and Kirk caught it and the Augment narrowed his eyes.

Something about Anton Karidian made his skin crawl and the alarm bells in his head pound, he glanced at Kirk who sent Karidian a unreadable expression, and Kirk knew exactly what it was.

It was hard, much harder than he'd thought it would be to sit at the table with that monster and pretend the man was just and innocent actor. He'd tried to keep the interactions between them brief but the man had continued to draw him into conversation, which he was unable to avoid unless he wanted to give up the game early. Then the man had continue to flirt with him, even kissing his hand as they got ready to separate for bed. It made his stomach churn with a toxic mixture of panic, fear, and hatred and he was none to surprise when he had nightmares that night.

"You're so beautiful, my beloved."

JT whimpered, trembling violently as he curled in on himself, pain coursing through his slight frame. Blood and unmentionables slicked his thighs and his back, bruises marring his wide hips. Kodos stood over him, with a dark kind of love in his eyes and possessive smile on his lips.

"So beautiful." He repeated, running a hand over the crying teen's bare leg possessively.

The blond flinched, then gasped placing a hand to his bulging stomach.

His captor frowned worriedly and placed his own hand over it.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

JT shook his head, unwilling to tell the man that the baby was coming, unfortunately his water chose that second to break and Kodos figured it out regardless. He cried out and the man smiled brightly.

A few hours later found the blond awakening in his cell, clean freshly showered and childless. He placed a hand to his bare womb and upon feeling that his child was gone, he screamed.

Jim jolted awake with a scream, his electric blue eyes wide and wet with tears. Strong hands held him down and he thrashed against them sobbing desperately.

"My baby! He took my baby!" He cried, whimpering as the hands tightened around him.

"Kirk!" Yelled a voice. "Kirk, calm down!"

He shook his head, thrashing harder. How could it tell him to calm down? He had to reach his baby.

He was pulled up into strong, lean muscled arms and held tightly a smooth, dark voice, deeper than Kodos' low tenor, rumbling softly in his ear. His struggled weakened and black spots appeared in his vision and clutched at the arms of the person holding him, looking up to meet worried silver-and-sky eyes.

"My baby...please...he took..."

He whispered before slumping against the owner unconscious.

TBC...