Yay! Another chapter. In quick succession.

This one is quite short – I'm bringing this era of the story to a finish – but a new... part... is coming?

Spread the word, Heretic is in town.

The light got brighter, making Kirk shield his eyes. Spock stared into it, and realisation dawned on his face.

'Perpare yourself, Captain.' he said, and the white light exploded.

Agony. Torture. Sickness. Pain. Misery. Time.

As each topic went through Nalien's head as the process sped up and she felt at least 70x worse than she did before, she tried desperately to take her mind of it. The pain was undescribable, it just was sort of there.

Suhur came to see her a few times, but no one else did. Was she screaming that loud? She didn't even know.

Suddenly, the pain began to ebb. It was blissful, to be able to move her fingers, then her arms and eventually her entire body – without feeling splitting pain.

So blissful, in fact, she began to laugh.

'You are ready?' Suhur said. Nalien had not known he was there, but he sat on the chair furthest from her bed.

She stood, and immediately she began to sway. Suhur almost got up to catch her, but she regained her balance swiftly. Bouncing on her feet, she looked down at her hands. She had gone quite promptly from being bed ridden, in unmaskable anguish to being up, every limb, every square inch of her body buzzing with newfound power.

She had never felt more alive.

She looked over at her brother, eyes wide and radiating with glow. 'I am ready.'

The blast was not a physical one. After about a minute of solid blinking to regain his sight, Kirk looked over at Spock first, only to see he was doing the same.

Voices rang out in the hallways, echoing around the tunnels. They had heard, or seen, something which had caught their attention. That was hardly surprising.

Kirk looked around to see what had caused the explosion. He saw no physical damage, and nothing that was a product of the light. This was confusing, even to Spock.

'What happened in here?' a villager growled, followed closely by three others. These, in turn, were flanked by two surly Klingons, holding phasers. Kirk saw Spock roll his eyes from the corner of his eye.

'I asked you a question, intruders.'

'I happened.' a familiar voice spoke up from literally nowhere, shocking the villagers. They stood in a protective stance, holding their rifles on their shoulders and pointing it into the darkness.

A slight shimmer the colour of spilt petrol protruded from the wall, and Nalien Chahine stepped out of it.

'Well, great.' she said, as all guns were aimed at her.

Kirk looked her up and down. Something was very different about her appearance. He tried to determine what it was – it wasn't her uniform, pristine and clean as always. It wasn't her skin, although the vitiligo always looked different to Kirk – too many different shapes. It may have been her hair – she had shaven it again, just long enough that you could not see the vitiligo underneath it.

It suddenly occurred to him that her eyes were darker, but they were... burning. And not just with anger, but literally burning. They were giving off a slight light in the darkness, making her look a lot more mysterious than she already was being.

'How are you, Captain?' she asked, not turning away from the villager closest to her, the one with his barrel right against her head.

'I could be better.'

She shrugged. 'Understandable. And you, Mister Spock?'

'I thought I was dead.'

'As did we.' Her eyes had a murderous glint as she stared down the villager.

'We're greatful for your presence, Nalien, really – but why are you here?'

'To get you. You've been gone for three days.'

Kirk looked over at Spock, both with their eyebrows raised. 'Three days, Spock.' he said, as if there weren't six armed enemies in the room with them.

'Now I come to think of it, Captain, it feels like it.'

'You think you can get them to go with you?' one of the Klingons said, his voice a gutteral prowl. 'They are our prisoners, and you're not even armed – therefore you are too.'

Ali laughed, a sweet and airy sound that sounded a lot more menacing than the Klingon, Spock thought. 'I don't think so.' She made a move towards Spock – the closest of the two to her. The villager shot at her, but a simple flick of her hand brought a glowing, light blue barrier between her and the bullet. It bounced off and landed on the floor with a clatter. She continued walking in Spock's direction.

She bent down beside him, working at the shackles binding his wrists. She was careful not to touch his skin – it was green and raw from rubbing. She pressed her fingers on the lock and pushed down lightly. They fell away and Spock's arms dropped to the floor. What little of his shirt was left covered only his arms and stomach – the entirety of the back was missing, including, Ali realised with horror, the skin. Their eyes met briefly, and she could see the pain masked by his stern expression. She looked away.

It was as the locks fell to the floor did some sort of spell broke in the room, and suddenly every gun was trained on her and firing as fast as the primitive rifles would allow them. Eventually, the Klingon weapons joined in, not only aiming at Ali but at Kirk and Spock (who had stood with what appeared like little difficulty, but in fact was very painful indeed) as well.

Not a bullet reached them, for she had locked her arms out in front of her and was generating the glowing blue visible force-field in an attempt to save them. Spock saw on her face that it was tiring her – soon she would not be able to continue.

The rifles soon ran out of bullets, and as they fumbled around for spare bullets in their clothing, she ceased the barrier.

Instead, her eyes focused on one of the Klingon phasers, which had stop firing when they realised it was useless and they were using up their power.

Instantly, the phaser fell from the Klingon's hands, illuminated with red heat. The other Klingon began to fire, but before he could press the trigger twice he, too, dropped it.

Unarmed, the villagers were resulting to hand-to-hand combat. Spock easily took down one, Kirk did so with a little more struggle, and Ali had the other one pinned to the wall as quick as a snake attacking it's prey. A Klingon yanked her backwards, so hard she hit the other wall and slid down it, limp.

The Klingon began to laugh. 'She showed so much promise,' he chuckled. He walked over to her, and kicked her leg lightly. Kirk saw one eye open, the eye the Klingon could not see, and look at him.

Then, quite suddenly and much to Kirk's horror, she burst into flames.

'I really hope everything is okay down there.' Bones muttered to Scotty on the bridge.

'If Nalien is as powerful as Suhur described,' Scotty replied, 'they'll be up soon.'

'But what if he was wrong? He's gone now, isn't he?'

It was true – Suhur had mysteriously disappeared after Ali beamed down to the planet. He went without a word, but Scotty saw the transporter active on the scanner and he was gone.

'Let's not think about it just yet, Doctor.'

Kirk tried to help, tried to step forward to get to her as the Klingon yelled in pain as his uniform caught fire, but someone pulled him back. He couldn't see through the flames, but he could be sure her eyes were still closed and a fairly peaceful expression on her face.

Spock could only stare in hopeless defeat as he felt something spark inside him – something almost like fear. He restrained a struggling Kirk, who would surely be set alight if he went any closer.

The room was lit in an orange glow – illuminating the faces of shocked onlookers.

Then suddenly they heard laughing. The Klingon was still trying to put himself out, and the room – which was lit by the flames – plunged into darkness, as if all light had been absorbed from it.

'Do you know why so many "witches" died during the trials?' the voice came from nowhere, echoing in the darkness. There was a short burst of pink light, and her sillhouette stood out. 'because the witch-hunters were scared. They thought that if anyone with a higher power than them existed, they would take over the world, and kill everyone in their path. Little did they know that what rose from those deaths, all those hangings, burnings – they were creating a legacy, an inspiration for all other races. Every witch that died, a new kindle was added to the ever-growing fire... and their ashes can burn, and they did.' an electric blue flash, then complete darkness.

In that darkness, a pair of distinctly dark green and glowing eyes came out of nowhere. 'Somehow, news of Earth's witch trials reached us on our home planet. We were intrigued. We wanted to be powerful – that's how we discovered we were.' her voice had taken that dangerous turn Spock had heard only a few times before. 'and now, we'll burn as bright as they did. Or I will. I'm the only one left. Good luck killing me.'

And with that, Kirk and Spock found themselves in the transporter room of the Starship Enterprise.

'Congratulations, Lieutenant – you've caused the Klingons to flee.'

Ali sat on the bridge a few hours later at her panel, watching as the Klingon Bird of Prey sped away from the planet at warp speed. She had lost the confidence she went down onto the planet with, and her head throbbed. She had hit it hard when the Klingon threw her across the room.

'That was of their own accord,' she said quietly. 'I may have scared them a little, but it was their choice to leave.'

Kirk grinned and patted her shoulder. Ali did not respond.

Her brother had left. She had been through every second of their time together several times over, just to see if there was anything she had missed. A clue, or message, anything that would account for his disappearance.

He had said she was healed. That made no sense to her – she could not have healed. Any man with a sane, or even insane, head could tell her that she was still trying to forget. Heaven knew she couldn't.

Spock felt practically nothing from his back – not an ache, not a twinge, not even the skin – it was numb. He raised his eyebrow.

'Is this permanent?' he muttered in questioning to Bones, who was working around him.

'I hope not. But you'd better be thankful that there was some spare skin lying around.' Spock didn't bother to question him – he knew he was 'joking'.

'Did Lieutenant Chahine acknowledge you about this newfound power?'

'Yes. The process was long and painful – and she sped it up to save you.'

Something inside Spock stirred as Bones began to stitch his back together.

He chose to ignore it.

:)

This is getting so much easier to write..! Can you feel something happening? I can. So can Ali (clue)

Next one coming soon!