I know I made a promise almost a week and a half ago (or more!) that I would be updating this story soon. I'm sorry I haven't updated. It's been forever. You can yell at me. I hate making all of you wait. Being busy certainly didn't help, but even more frustrating was that even when I wasn't busy, I couldn't seem to get the words on paper without cringing. Writer's block is rough. Even when you have other things mapped out, sometimes it just doesn't come. I've rewritten this chapter multiple times, but so far, this version is the best and hopefully you'll think so too. Thanksgiving break is soon, so I'll get more time to work on this story. My main focus right now is school. Hard to believe, but after break, it's December, which means finals. I ONLY HAVE FIFTEEN DAYS OF HIGH SCHOOL LEFT AFTER BREAK! I'm moving with my dad, so I didn't want to bother finishing my senior year at a strange school with strange people. Winter break will be lovely because I won't have to return to school which means, MORE time to write stories.

Anyways, sorry for the delay, but here is the next chapter! Enjoy!

"I don't mean to tempt fate here, but where is everybody?" Scotty asked, his eyes scanning the dark halls.

"The ship was designed to be run by minimal crew; one if necessary."Khan replied, briefly taking his eyes off the path ahead.

"What?" Scotty exclaimed in disbelief. "Now-"

Out of the darkness, a security officer appeared and swung his fist at Khan. Sensing his move, Khan grabbed the man with lightening-quick speed and threw a punch into his gut. Finishing the guard with a hit to the face, Khan continued down the hallway.

Kirk and Scott can handle themselves just fine. I need to get to Admiral Marcus. I don't need them with me though.

After suffering a few hits himself, Kirk threw the last guard into the wall.

"You alright?" Kirk asked Scotty, pulling the engineer up from the floor.

"Yeah." Scotty glanced around the area. "Where's Khan?"

Bones gritted his teeth as he walked towards Spock. "Spock-"

"Doctor McCoy." Spock gave a curt nod. "I believe that you want to discuss the situation with Khan."

Bones gave a slight nod.

"McCoy, I can guarantee that Khan will bring nothing but trouble and misfortune to the Enterprise. I-"

"How can you say that, Spock?" Bones spat, his words flying out with no filter.

Spock held up his hand, stopping Bones before he could say anything else.

"You interrupted me, Doctor. I was going to say that I believe you. Repeating what I said earlier, I will give Khan a chance. Mind you, only one chance. He has to prove to me that he is worthy of staying on this ship."

Bones rubbed his temples, trying to hide his glee.

"You won't regret this Spock. I promise you, Khan will not put any of us in harms way."

"Just a minute, Doctor."

"What?" Bones asked, trying to hold himself together. I will punch that green-blooded hobgoblin if he changes his mind now.

"I believe you have forgotten about our Captain and Mr. Scott."

Bones let out a sigh of relief. "What about them?"
"I presume you didn't tell them the story of Khan and assuming I'm correct, that means that they do not trust Khan whole-heartedly. Admittedly, I do not trust him completely. Seeing as how the Captain and Mr. Scott are with Khan at the moment, I do not think that they will drop their defenses even if you relayed the story to them."

Bones nodded. Spock's concern made perfect sense. How could they convince Kirk and Scotty to believe Khan was trustworthy? It would take more than a few minutes, and time was a luxury they didn't have.

"We don't have to tell them." Bones stated calmly.

"Pardon?" Spock changed his into one of mild confusion.

"Kirk and Scotty don't need the story. All we need to do is figure out a way to completely disable their ship and get them back safely. They don't need to know Khan's story until he is ready to tell them."

Spock thought over the idea.

"Doctor McCoy, I believe your idea will work."

Spock stood up from the seat, locating Uhura.

"Lieutenant, I need you to assemble all senior medical and engineering staff in the weapons bay."

"Alright" Uhura replied, confusion lacing her voice.

Spock spun back towards Bones.

"Bones, I'll need your help as well."

"Why do you need my help?" Bones questioned, wondering where this could be going.

"We need to move Khan's crew." Spock stated simply.

"Why on Earth would we do that?"

"Doctor, I know you want to see the greatness that lies in Khan, but I know better. There is light and dark in everybody and the darkness I can see in Khan is too obvious to ignore. I know he's going to want his crew. That's all he's talked about since arriving on the Enterprise. If we are able to give Khan his crew, I believe that we can get him to agree to come back aboard the Enterprise."

"You believe that Khan will betray us?"

"And you do not?"

Bones rolled his eyes. "I know that people think he isn't a good person. I get it. I understand. Spock, I know Khan better than you think I do. He won't betray us just to get his crew. He doesn't work that way. He'll make it more complex. Humans are complex; especially humans with his background and past. Khan is going to try and command that ship with his crew. He's afraid of being by himself and he believes he needs a crew under his complete command to feel secure and loved. He doesn't. He hasn't seen that yet. You are correct in assuming that Khan won't come easily. All we need to do is to get him to understand that it's not the number of people who love you, but the quality of their love. That's all they need."

Spock nodded in understanding. "We still need to prepare Khan's crew. He'll need the promise of having his crew if we even want a shot at getting him back on the Enterprise."

Kirk and Scotty moved down the hallways as silently as possible.

"Where is he?" Scotty asked.

Kirk looked down one of the rows. "Shit."

"This way." Kirk and Scotty turned in the direction of Khan's voice. Khan stared directly at Kirk before walking away, pulling out his phaser in the process.

"The minute we get to the bridge, drop him." Kirk whispered to Scotty.

"What? Stun him? Khan?" Scotty balked at the idea. "I thought he was helping us?"

"I'm pretty sure we're helping him." Kirk said, also pulling out his phaser. He followed Khan out of the maze and back into the main corridor.

"We are not going to arm these torpedoes." Spock ordered the medical officers.

"Well, what are we going to do? Put a bow on it?" One of the officers sneered. He couldn't believe that they were going to help a psychopath.

"Ignore him." Bones told Spock, as the Vulcan opened his mouth.

"We are going to give Khan his crew in the hopes that once he has his crew, he will consider returning to the Enterprise." Spock continued, pretending as though he hadn't heard the officer.
"And what if he doesn't?" The same officer responded.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Bones snapped back.

Spock looked around the room, which was filled with Khan's frozen crew members.

"Bones and I will return to the bridge. All of you are responsible for preparing Khan's crew for transport as quickly as possible. Upon my command, we will beam the crew to the Vengeance."

The officers in the room nodded their assent, although a few officers did not look pleased with the orders.

"Power coming online, sir!" An officer informed Admiral Marcus.

"Retarget the Enterprise now!" Admiral Marcus commanded.

"Aye, sir!"
In that same moment, Khan, Kirk and Scotty entered the bridge and opened fire on everyone in the room. Carol saw her opportunity and hit the officer holding her hostage square in the face.

Kirk nodded to Scotty, hoping that the engineer would remember his orders.

Scotty gave a brief nod and took a deep breath. Nerves seeped into his hands, making them tremble. Scotty pulled the trigger and Khan dropped to the floor.

"Make sure he stays down."

Scotty made his way towards Khan's stunned body.

"Excuse me." He told Carol, trying his hardest to mind his manners in the current situation. Cautiously, he pointed his phaser at Khan.

"Admiral Marcus, you're under arrest." Kirk stated with as much authority as he could muster.

"You're not actually going to do this are you?" The Admiral asked, scoffing at Kirk's words.

Khan's eyes fluttered opened.

I've been betrayed. Kirk does not trust me. Not that I am complaining, but I trusted Doctor McCoy's opinion with Kirk. How wrong he was to believe his Captain to be such a good, caring soul.

"Admiral, get out of the chair." Kirk ordered.

Khan bided his time, waiting for the proper moment to attack Kirk.

"You better stop and think about what you're doing Kirk. You better think about what you did on Kronos. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet. You killed a Klingon patrol. Even if you got away without a trace, war is coming. And whose going to lead us?! YOU?!" The Admiral's words sounded like piercing daggers, although they seemed to not affect Kirk. "If I'm not in charge, our entire way of life is decimated. So you want me off this ship...you better kill me."

"I'm not going to kill you, sir." Kirk told the Admiral. "But I could stun your ass and drag you out of that chair." Kirk raised his phaser higher. "I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter."
The Admiral turned towards Carol, not bothering to conceal his rage.

"You alright?" Kirk asked Carol.

"Yes, Captain." Carol responded, her voice shaking slightly.

Khan sensed Scott taking his eyes off what he believed to be his stunned body. Khan launched himself up from the floor.

"Jim!" Carol shouted, the first to notice Khan's movement.

Khan tackled Kirk to the ground, easily overpowering him with his superior strength. Khan let all of his years of bottled rage out on the Captain.. Throwing him across the room with ease, and sending a few kicks and punches into him. Kirk lay on the ground, struggling to catch his breath.

"Listen!" Carol tried to get Khan's attention so that she could try and ease him back into a more controllable state.

"Wait!" She pleaded, but Khan did neither. He threw Carol to the ground as well, breaking her leg with brute force, causing Carol to scream in pain.

The Admiral worked on opening the door, trying to escape from Khan. Khan reached out for the Admiral and grabbed his face, slowly beginning to crush his skull.

Make it slow. Make it painful. Make him pay for what he did. Images of his crew, family and former friends exploded through Khan's vision, finally sending him over the edge.

"You should have let me sleep." Khan snarled, the crunching of Admiral Marcus's skull filling the room.

Yeah...I'm terrible at writing action. Sorry for action fans, I'm just not very good at it. Maybe I should stick with mental writings instead, because I love writing thoughts.

I hope the little snippets of Khan's thoughts were helpful. He'll become more and more of a major character as the story continues, but I'm trying to shape Spock, Bones and company for the sequel.

Please review!

On a side note, if you've followed me as an author, in the next few weeks you may see a new story posted. It will be a Hunger Games story (most likely), so if you enjoyed that series, you might want to check it out!

Lots of love!