You're the one who broke my heart, the reason my world fell apart. You're the one who made me cry, yet I'm still in love with you and I don't know why- Anonymous.

In the nights following her rendezvous with Spock on the rooftop, Nyota experienced the most troubling of dreams. And when she opened her eyes in the morning, she would awaken in relief and slight surprise that Khan had not stolen her away whilst she had been unconscious.

The twisted knot of dread in her stomach and chest tightened every day as she found herself flinching at every shadow and made sure that she would not find herself alone in the corridors that concealed his vigilant gaze. Spock would be by her side throughout the majority of their scheduled free moments.

Deep within her mind and heart, Nyota knew Khan had heard every word exchanged between them that night, where she had neither the energy nor rationalization to care. In her fear in the aftermath of Marcus' murder by her hands, she had clung to Spock in childlike desperation. She had failed to deliberate and think things through in her haste to find the sane light in her current situation.

She had been the one to commit a heinous crime, to soak her hands with another human's blood. Perhaps she was the true evil to fear…

And her relationship with Khan, a man she wanted to loathe, but could not find the willpower to do so. Nyota was taught to never hate anyone, no matter what they had done.

Now, she knelt before the painting of the Angel Gabriel inside the small chapel of the building, taking advantage of Spock's preoccupation with managerial duties. She had to escape the mayhem of people crowding around her and spreading rumors she had no interest in knowing of.

The cold stone floor scraped against her knees, her simple dress skirt of violet spread about her vulnerable form. She prayed for any kind of revelation of what she had to do to fix everything. A shiver raked up her spine as a chill covered her bare arms and face.

He was here…

"I feel I should congratulate you, Nyota. You have shown me the error of my ways as you promised the night you removed my mask." His voice shook around her body throughout the room, scathing her flesh with a shudder of apprehension and no doubt shaking the aged walls. "What exactly was the crime, my dear? I crave only your honest answer. All I desired was to love and care for you as the one thing I hold most dear."

A note of heartbreak stood for the conclusion of his low-pitched speech, enveloping Nyota under its spell, although she did her best to hold ground.

"Your crime was not allowing me to have a say in the matter of our relationship. I am not an object with a name engraved into its surface." She protested against him, struggling to keep everything under control.

"I allowed you a choice of waiting to agree to my marriage proposal, or accepting it when I had first asked you. As a kind reminder, you selected the latter. I saw you abandon my ring in the snow…" His voice began to trail as the growl of anger gave way to the misery and betrayal. "You crushed my heart with your childish decision to run away from the felony I took the time to remedy to the best of my ability. What will it take to make you understand, Nyota!? Everything I have ever done was for you!"

"I do understand, and the fact that I do frightens me." She admitted before she could stop herself. "I want you to know that I do not hate you, nor fear you."

I fear what consequences my actions will bring…

"Do you love him, Nyota?" He asked in a blunt tone, with no sarcasms or deceptions.

She only gazed down at the floor as she whispered her response, knowing she had to be honest with both him and herself.

"I…I do care for Spock as a dear friend from my childhood. But, over the past month, I have thought of him more as a brother, one whom I feel safe around." She looked up and stared around at the walls, not knowing the exact direction from where his voice was coming. Nyota found herself holding her breath, awaiting his answer.

"And yet I heard those words of devotion and love between, each syllable equal to a blade piercing my soul." The helplessness in his rumbling tone, foreign to anyone's ears but her own, cut Nyota to the bone, the realization that she had truly destroyed the bond, however tumultuous it was, between them. She had allowed her fears of her actions link to the unwanted engagement.

Nyota had killed Alexander Marcus in a fit of rage, most unlike herself. She had been angry at everyone who treated her like an animosity, something to be jettisoned and avoided. Marcus had been the embodiment of everything she hated in that moment as she had lashed out with pure animal instinct.

And Khan had disposed of the evidence to protect her.

"About Alexander Marcus… I…" She began to say before Khan interrupted.

"Yes, I was a witness to that. I was proud of you for defending yourself and Caroline." A pleasant purr momentarily overtook his ghostly pitch at the recalling of a bloodshed memory.

"Murder is not an accomplishment, Khan. And neither is betraying a man I have come to…respect." She blurted aloud, the conflicting emotions overwhelming her.

"We must all do what needs to be done in order to survive, Nyota." He did what he could to reassure her, not forgetting the anger boiling in his veins.

He was recovering the grasp he possessed on her. And it would remain that way…

"Am I to be punished for betraying you twice over now?" She dared to ask him, swallowing a lump in her throat. "You will steal me away again in the cover of night?"

"You, my dear, have caused me to collect my own thoughts on our relationship and that in itself deserves no punishment in the way of your thinking." His reply only served to confuse and intrigue her. "It should come as no surprise to you, but I have my fair share of sins, murder included, to atone for. That fact alone should bind us closer together, standing on the identical cusp of humanity."

"Then what will happen?" She questioned, knowing that the New Year was approaching and wanting to know the dark resolution was to be conjured in his brilliant mind.

"In the light of past events, I have composed an opera…with you as the leading lady. It is to symbolize your blossoming transformation from a fearful starlet into a powerful soprano with the ability to break men's hearts to the point of irreversible grief." He paused in order to regain the dignity of his boast, hoping to intimidate her, hypnotize her with an enticing chance to win her back.

Nyota's eyes closed as she imagined being back upon the stage, but she could no longer remember it with fondness, only a recollection of the nightmare, of being mocked and chained.

And with only Khan to escape them…

"I have no doubt you will do your best. Your voice is heaven, but should you wish to excel, you still have much to learn. Should your feminine pride permit you, our relationship should resume to the dynamic of teacher and student… Do you agree, Nyota?"

His warm breath blew in her ear as she felt his presence behind her, influential and confident. Her eyes opened and she turned her head to find his face mere inches from her own as he knelt behind the startled woman. He only grinned with a small smirk as she gasped in reaction, his long fingers running through her silken hair in a tender fashion.

Her first instinct was to scream, but he raised a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence.

"You will always be mine! And God help anyone who attempts to deny that fact, you most of all!" He seethed, not caring that she was beginning to shake. His fingers unthreaded from her hair and moved to envelope her shoulders, creeping toward her neck.

"If you desire a vengeance worthy of the heartbreak I have caused you, then allow me the chance to give it to you." She hissed with her own fire, facing down the obsessive maniac holding her. Where was the man who had cared for her in his home?

"I will give you a generous head start, Nyota." His hands removed themselves from her neck to cradle her face in a mockery of affection and admiration, his eyes void of anything except predatory intent. "I suggest you run for your life."

"I'm sorry." She managed to whisper before he released her. Nyota did as he commanded and ran faster and farther than she had ever in her life, with only one destination in mind.

The lake of the London Cemetery…

Her vision was a blur as survival instincts and confusion overpowered her fright. He wanted to physically pursue her in a literal game of predator and prey. If revenge for his heartbreak was what he coveted, then she would gladly give it to him.

Not bothering to acknowledge the stable manager outside the building as she grabbed a horse, she flung her adrenaline-fueled body onto the great white creature, taking hold of the bridle in her fingers and urging it forward.

Grateful that she had ridden horses from her childhood, Nyota grasped onto the horse as it galloped along the cobblestone path to the cemetery, the cool mist soaking her face and strands of hair sticking to her forehead.

Khan was not far behind, she knew that much already.

In what only seemed like a minute, she arrived at the iron gates of the graveyard, dismounting the horse. It nickered in exasperation as she tied the reins to one of the bars and she attempted to calm it down.

"I know you sense danger nearby. But he only has his pursuit with me in mind."

In a few minutes, he would definitely find her, but he would be too late.

Nyota's shoes crunched in the thin surface of freezing snow, but she hardly noticed. She was lost in her own mind, walking among the tombstones of the deceased and reminding herself for the thousandth time about how she may have felt about Khan.

She could not leave London and while Spock most definitely held a place in her heart, as well as Carol, she knew that the center of her inner conflict had been Khan, from the night he had saved her from Marcus' malicious hands.

She had been afraid of him, how he looked at and spoke to her. Around him, she felt afraid and intrigued. Rageful, yet determined. He made her experience feelings she had never endured before. She felt pity and had yearned to comfort him. True, she had not wanted a coercive betrothal to him, but that had been when her blood began to rush with anticipation and willingness to overtake him as he had with her. When he had been tender and gentle with her, she felt safe and protected. He had forgiven her for removing his mask in such a manipulative manner, claiming that such an action would not affect his love for her.

Now that she was being hunted by him…she failed to sense any fear within herself. Only a strength igniting in her veins where she transformed from victim to equal.

Nyota stood before the edge of the lake, frozen over by the wintry climate, the very scene where the ending of her tale would occur. Every good story deserved a death to wait for.

I'm falling for him… And I had been doing so ever since that first night in his home.

As those words flowed in her psyche, the tears of horror, denial and fury caressed her cold cheeks. A shrill scream of icy pitch erupted from her throat, bursting forth from her open mouth, her head tilted up toward the cloudy sky.

He had heard her cry of baiting, tempting him to approach at his own risk.

This was her final play and she was finished with him being in control.

She knew she was a despicable woman of selfish intent. There was only a 50 percent chance her plan would succeed.

Any minute he would arrive and she would present the consequences of being driven to insanity, what this poisoned insane love was causing her to commit. Her mentality intoxicated with wrongdoing…

Her suicide.

Nyota took a tentative step upon the ice, testing her weight to see if it would hold. Another step taken with the other foot, then another… And another…

She closed her eyes, seeing nothing but darkness, the freezing wind blowing through her wild hair, her heartbeat pounding in her chest and vibrating through her eardrums.

"NYOTA!" His baritone voice shattered the silence of her peaceful surroundings as she opened her eyes, revealing herself to be in the middle of the lake, a fair distance away in the physical sense. "What in the world do you believe you are doing?!"

The tone in Khan's voice was exposed with terror, defeat and worry. Without moving her feet, Nyota turned to face him, failing to feel remorse for what was about to happen.

"I am saving you the trouble of disposing of me since I have done the unspeakable crime of betraying you, the man who has loved me with a fierce passion beyond mere human acknowledgement. Only now, I am saving us both from each other. We were close to being destroyed by this dance, Khan." Her voice rang with conviction as he could only listen with confusion and genuine helplessness. Nyota could see the shine of tears in his vivid eyes despite the mask, mirroring her own.

"Nyota, please." He reached forward with his hand to her, however futile it appeared. He was careful to keep off the ice and not affect the weight of Nyota's plight, not daring to compromise her safety. "This will not remedy anything. I will NOT allow you to take yourself away from me!" His vicious growl caused her to jump in her skin. "Would you truly rather die than be with me? I can assure you that I would follow quickly after. Please, just carefully step back off the ice. I beg of you."

She could see his entire arm shaking with honest anxiety, the fear in his eyes and approaching sob in his voice. He was no longer pursuing her out of pure, malicious pleasure. He was coaxing her away from a premature grave from with there would be little chance of rescuing her should the ice give way.

"No, but I have to show you that what you have made me do. The murder of Marcus and the meeting with Spock, it was my denial of loving you that caused me to do those things I would have never done before. You have forced me to be your betrothed, yet you claim you desire only for me to be happy. I am tired of this repetitive waltz where neither of us are satisfied with the result."

"Nyota, please come back off the ice." His hand continued to reach for her, beckoning with urgency.

"Since you will never release me to be free, this is the only way I can escape. I have fallen in love with you, Khan. Not a day went by without a pain in my chest from the moment I dropped your ring into the snow that night, and I loathe myself for it." Broken sobs overtook her voice as the ice beneath her feet began to crack under stress from her weight.

"Nyota!" Khan shouted with a loud bellow unlike anything she had heard before.

"Goodbye, Khan. I will no longer torment you with my indecisive ways. My damning hands will never toy with your fragile heart again." Her whisper reached his ears despite the cracks of the ice.

In one split second, time moved in slow motion for Khan. The tears of hatred and love streamed down his face and an animalistic roar emerged from his throat as his traumatized beloved disappeared through the icy surface and submerged into the arctic lake.

All Nyota felt was the sensation of her limbs not functioning as the deadly frost of the temperature dominated her senses, water stinging her nostrils and the heavy skirt of her dress dragging her useless body down into the dark depths where she would never be found.

Everything went black as a monster's arms claimed her sinking form to be his companion in his dungeon beneath the earth.

AN: I know! If you hate Nyota at this point, I accept that. And it was terrible of me to leave a cliffhanger. I apologize if this chapter was ludicrous. I was desperate to post something despite hardly receiving any reviews for the last chapter. I will say this again: If you put this story in your Favorites or subscribe to it, PLEASE REVIEW! Write anything, as long as it's an honest opinion. Happy March to you all!