AN: I am so grateful for all the wonderful reviews and to know that you all enjoy this story! It's just barely begun, folks, so keep up. I promise, those with many questions will get them all answered in time. Now, on with the show!

Marla's POV

In their impromptu living quarters, Marla still seethed quietly about the incident a few moments ago. She couldn't help herself. She felt as if she'd been labeled some horrible name. She felt as if she should be walking around with a scarlet letter on her chest, or something. And for what? For being an ordinary human. And now the bruise of her cheek would be a blatant reminder for quite some time. At least the cold gel-filled packet helped with the swelling. She was still in this put-out state when Khan entered the shuttle.

He crossed to her immediately, and sat next to her. She turned her head away.

"Let me look," he said, reaching out with is right hand to take her own, to move the pack from her face. His left tried to touch her chin to make her look at him. She pulled away, and stood up.

"I'm fine!" she snapped, going to the other side of the cabin. "God, everyone is treating me like I'm some sort of… Like I'm helpless or like I'm some doormat they can walk on! Or a punching-bag!" she shut her eyes. No. No she wouldn't cry. Not now. Not because of this.

"You were attacked by my people- people who should be grateful to you," Khan said, standing and coming up behind her. "And what is more, you will not even seek my help!" he sounded confused, and hurt. "I thought you trusted me, Marla."

She ducked her head, and answered, "I do trust you, Khan. But I don't want to hide behind you, either." She turned around to face him, head tilted back to look in to his face. "If I can't fight my own battles that will only prove that they're right; that I'm weak and useless."

He seemed quiet for a moment. His eyes were moving over face. Had she just upset him more by not taking his protection?

"I don't want to be a burden on you," she explained. "And if I can prove my worth, then I'll do what I have to."

"You do not have to prove yourself to anyone," he told her. His hands rose again, and he cupped her unharmed cheek, and then took the packet away from the bruised one. "I know your worth already, and that is enough."

His thumb stroking at her unmarked cheek made her realize just how close he was, and how intimately he was touching her. How gently and so carefully. She started to shake, her hands, her whole body trembling. She tried to look anywhere else but at him, now.

"You're…not upset with me?" she asked him.

"Why should I be? I doubt you provoked the women who attacked you," he said, while his fingertips trailed backward. His first and second finger moved lightly over the back of her ear. "And I was not there to prevent it. I should have been."

"Your people need you," she said. "It's your responsibility as their Leader."

"You are one of my people, now," he asserted. He bowed his shoulders and head down closer to her own, while his hands guided her to look up at him. "If I cannot protect even a single member of my family, especially if I cannot keep them safe from within, how can I lead them all?"

Their eyes locked together in that instant, and when they did, Marla's breath caught in her throat. She didn't know what he was going to do, but just this: just this moment, with only his hands on her face, just their eyes meeting, had her heart thundering inside of her chest. When his eyes broke the contact, closing while he leaned down to press his forehead to hers, she was breathing again. Shallow, short, shaking breaths, puffed from her slightly parted lips while their noses bumped together. All she could think was, 'oh God!' She could feel the warmth of air escape from his nose as he breathed in and out.

In seconds, he had let her go and stepped away, his back to her. She didn't know what had happened. It had happened and then was over so quickly. She gulped and asked quietly, "K-Khan?"

"That was inappropriate," his voice rolled out softly. "Forgive me." Marla couldn't believe her eyes. He was being bashful?! Or was that shame? She hoped it was the first. How odd. He wore it well, though his confidence and strength set better on him. He glanced back at her, over his shoulder, and asked, "Did you enjoy the gifts I left you?"

It took Marla a minute to come out of her stupor from their almost…whatever that had been.

"Oh! Yes. Yes I did," she told him. "I do, still. Thank you for letting me have a tricorder. And for this." She stroked the shoulder drape of the blanket-sari. "I can't believe you made something so nice with a shuttle blanket."

"A simple thing," he said, "I was born in India, after all. It was something I quickly learned, among other skills."

"So, combat, warfare, strategy and fashion?" she asked, unable to stop the touch of humor in her voice.

"As well as sculpture and weapon-craft." He turned fully around again, hands going behind his back. "I can make a bust from clay as easily as I can carve a bow from wood, or hone a knife from rock."

"That's amazing," she said, with all the meaning in the word.

"But only a few of those skills were ever useful," Khan added.

"Why would you learn an artisan skill?" she asked him.

"For the same reason I read the works of the poets and great authors. Out of boredom, and to appease my curiosity."

"It's such a shame," Marla said, easing in to the seats of the cabin. "I would like to see you sculpt something."

He joined her on the seats, though kept the distance he had placed between them. "I would have been proud to show you my work."

She tilted her head a little. "I wish I had my paints and canvas, still," she mused. "I used to paint, in my free time, even on the Eden. You would make a good subject for a painting. You have very classic features."

"That is a pity," was his reply.

The silence between them was heavy, but it wasn't uncomfortable. It was instead a quiet, relaxing feeling. Eventually, however, she had to move aside and gather her blanket, and bid him goodnight.

As she felt sleep coming to her, she heard his voice speak softly, "O, sleep a little while, white pearl…"

The next three weeks were not the easy in the least. Even for enhanced super-soldiers with massive amounts of strength, taking their temporary homes and all of their stores of food was tiring. They had had to place the shuttles near enough to the water that they could easily walk to it, but not so close that, should the stormier seasons come with torrential rains, they would be flooded. While the shuttles were designed for water landings, they couldn't float indefinately. They also needed to be able to cultivate the Comp Berries (short for Compost Berries, the name given to the very odiferous fruit they had discovered) and anything else they may find as they moved closer to the mountains. They also had to be careful of new predators. One evening, when they had had to stop, a massive serpent, not unlike the Titanboa, had taken a man. Dmitri Blasko, a chemist. The creature, stretching 40 feet in length, had hard knots on the top of its cranium, and when found, they could still see the massive lump of the digested Augment man in its belly.

Khan's vengeance on the serpent had been swift. He, Weiss, and Harluf Ericsson had taken the massive serpent together. Marla could still remember watching, from a distance, after they had given chase to the snake, how it had wrapped its coils around the Viking-like man, while Weiss tried to keep it from strangling and crushing him. It was Khan who took the kill with a blast from his phaser to the soft scales just under its jaws. Using a make-shift knife from a hastily sharpened stone, they had attempted to cut Blasko's body from the snake, in hopes that he may yet be saved, but, sadly, when they retrieved him, it was too late.

Upon their return, Khan looked to the rest of his people, and he said, "I will let no one else die. If you cannot master your phasers, we will make our own weapons!"

In the days after, they had made many deadly weapons. Bows from the jungle wood, arrows with sharp arrow-heads carved out from river stones. They made knives, and, after a hunting trip to the mountains, they even discovered rocks large enough to make in to massive clubs, and to hewn and sharpen for axes. For added measure to their new arsenal, they started to have men, and women, stand guard at their boarders. Watching and ready to defend at the first sign of danger.

Once fully seated in their permanent home, Marla, along with Mr. McPherson, had begun to discuss possible methods of making sod for equally permanent houses. The shuttles really were not equipped to serve as housing, and there had been talk by many about stripping the metals down and melting them to make better weapons and items. She couldn't disagree with that being a good choice. She found that Mr. McPherson was a very amiable person to talk to, and he seemed to value her opinions and words almost as much as Khan did. She still disliked science, really, but they got on well for their work and the good of the settlement's survival.

She also had grown closer to Dr. Hawkins. He was a good and very light-hearted man, by nature- quick with a joke, which made for an easy bed-side manner. She felt more at ease with him around to make situations more humorous. Especially since there was still some animosity around the camp concerning her presence.

Then there was Harluf. He still came by to talk to her, though after the first few encounters she noticed he did so when Khan was busy or away to scouting missions. But really, it didn't matter to her. As far as Marla was concerned, one more friend meant one less person plotting to beat the ever-living daylights out of her. She could stand to have more friends. Especially ones who actually treated her like a person, and used her name. He would always address her as 'Miss Marla', and even had respect for her.

It seemed that more and more of Khan's time was being taken up with either scouting or running the settlement. It left her feeling lonely, even with the few allies she really had. When she wasn't called to him to help with plans or to offer insight on anything, their contact was limited. But it was still there. It was in glances made, by him or by her, eyes passing over the other. It was in a brief touch of his fingers over her arm or at her hand when he passed by. It was in the ghost of a hand passing over her hair, felt when half-asleep as he returned to their shuttle at night. That last might have been made up in a dream, but for Marla, it counted. Otherwise, she missed him. Badly.

One late afternoon, as the heat of the day began to die away, while she stood with Khan, McPherson, and the others of the 'inner circle' to discuss the possibility of another trip in to the mountains for minerals for building or to seek out more edible plants, one of their boarder scouts, she thought his name was Daniel, came up to them.

"My Lord!" the young man with short blonde hair shouted, "My Lord! I think I saw them- those animals you told us about; massive, hairy bison! I saw them across the river!"

The dark-haired leader broke away, and called, "Marla! I need you to confirm it!" She followed him obediently. They reached the river-bank, and looked out over in to the distance, across the rolling blue waters. She squinted at the animals so far away.

"I wish I had binoculars. But from this distance, since it's a herd formation… I'd say it's very likely that they're the Ceti Bison," she said, smiling.

"Excellent," Khan breathed. "The boa meat is almost gone." He turned to Weiss and McPherson. "Joaquin, find Ericsson, Pavarti, and Doctor Hawkins. Liam, you stay here." He looked to young Daniel, and said, "You will come with us, as well. Gather weapons- as many as you can carry and what you can use confidently. We will bring home fresh meat." He sounded as if he were relishing the idea of a proper hunt.

His focus turned to Marla and he told her, "Return to camp with Liam and look over what was collected from the last mountain trip. Scan them thoroughly and catalogue everything."

She nodded, "Yes, Sir," and left, feeling his gaze on her back. She would have enjoyed it if she weren't worried. The Bison were herbivores, but they were still massive creatures, and had hooves that could potentially crush even an Augment's skull.

He would return, though. She had every confidence that he would make it. She only hoped he wasn't hurt.

She and McPherson went back to the camp and sat together, looking over a blanket that held various items and bugs brought back from the last mountain-scouting. She took up a few shoots that reminded her of green onions, and scanned them.

"Toxic," she said, sighing. "But it seems to read similar to Milkweed plants, particularly this sticky secretion. If we take these they could be applied to rashes."

"Gideon would love that, then," McPherson said.

The next was a fat, but slimy grub. "Well, of course this would be edible."

"The worst things usually are." He set aside a purple flower. "Toxic leaves."

"But pretty," she observed.

McPherson picked up a black insect, about the size of his thumb, and stopped. "Well! That's very interesting," he said, smiling and lifting his tricorder to scan it. He'd gotten very proficient with the device in the short time he'd had it.

Marla moved over to look at what had him fascinated. "Larvae?" she asked. Under the black bug were tiny, wriggling, shiny black larva that seemed to still be clinging to the dead parent.

"Seems so." He checked the readings. "Hm, the parent is edible, but the larvas seem to have a neurotoxin in them. I'd like to study these for a bit."

"You can go right ahead, but be careful. They have that toxin for a reason, let's not find out how it gets transmitted."

"Oh, I know," McPherson said. "These things are astonishing. They look like eels…"

When he'd finally set the bug and its offspring aside, they returned to their sorting, and catalogued all the data. By their task's end, it was nearly dark.

"They're late," she said softly.

"Or the herd ran from them and they had to chase. In any case, don't be worried," McPherson assured her. "Just look forward to some fresh meat that doesn't have an aftertaste like shoe-leather."

"Hey," she countered, "I lived for a few days on spongy-cardboard bread! I can handle shoe-leather snake meat." They shared a laugh at that, and the red-haired scientist picked up the insect he had been taken with before.

"I'm going to study these eel-larvae a little more."

"Suit yourself," she replied. They said their farewells, and she left him. She headed for the river. She couldn't help but want to make sure that Khan and the others returned safely.

She wasn't even half-way through the camp when she was grabbed by Zuleika and Amy.

"And just where are you going, little dog?" asked Zuleika as she pulled on Marla's right arm, while Amy had her left. Marla struggled in their grasp.

"Let me go!" she shouted. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Because I'm tired of seeing your ugly, squat face," Zuleika answered, dragging her through the camp to the rebuilt fire-pit. "And I'm tired of our Lord's special treatment for you." A crowd began to gather as they witnessed Zuleika and Amy dragging her around. They must have been waiting for a chance to do this for a while- taking the chance while the people who would actually help her were gone.

Amy grabbed Marla's left arm, then, and Zuleika grabbed the material of Marla's sari. "First, we'll teach you some humility," Zuleika informed her as she pulled, tugged, and finally got the blanket-dress off of Marla's body, leaving her in her old Starfleet shirt and her underwear. Marla tried to bend over to hide her exposed lower-half. The crowd actually cheered for Zuleika.

"See this!" the Amazon woman said, holding it up. "She thinks she looks better than us!" The other women in the crowd hissed and sneered at Marla, then shouted for joy as Zuleika tossed it in to the fire. Then she and Amy both held her arms again, and she forced Marla to turn around. Marla fought. She jerked, scrambled her feet, kicked (though missed often), and her few contact hits didn't faze either of them. But Zuleika still pulled the back of Marla's shirt up, exposing her burn scars.

"Look at this! These scars! These are the proof of how inferior she is! None of us would have these!" she cried out to the crowd. Then the two women shoved Marla back and the smaller woman stumbled to the ground.

"You are nothing," Zuleika told her as she walked up to Marla, and loomed over the ordinary woman. "You don't belong here with us, and you need to learn your place, little bitch. Now is the time for that lesson."

Marla's arm went back, and she felt her hand cover something. A rock? This was one of the stones they used to frame the fire pit… Had it gotten loose? It was still warm, too! But it was enough. She stood up, shaking and shuddering. If anyone around them saw what she'd picked up, they didn't say. Instead, she stared at the Amazonian woman, returning the dark-haired Augment's hate with her own defiance. She summoned up all the courage and ire in her smaller body, then. She would not run from this fight.

"I am not nothing," Marla told her. "And I'm not a dog, or a bitch, or inferior. I am flesh, and blood, and bone, just like you- and I won't let you keep treating me like this!" She then ran at Zuleika, hand up, and used the rock palmed in her hand to strike against the Augment woman's face. It made a loud Crack! Zuleika's head whipped away from the impact. Zuleika stepped back. Marla took several steps backward, too, and the crowd fell silent. Zuleika raised her hand up. The light of the fire revealed that blood was trickling from the Amazon's mouth. Was…that a tooth? Marla had knocked her tooth out!

Zuleika's dark eyes turned toward the smaller woman, then, full of wrath. She shrieked, and threw her massive form at Marla.

"YOU RUINED MY FACE!" she shrieked. She grabbed Marla by her hair, making her scream, and the tall Amazon's other hand grabbed Marla's neck. She started to squeeze.

"I'll kill you, you bitch!" Zuleika seethed, blood spitting out between her lips with each word. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

As the Amazon's fingers tightened around her throat and Marla felt her brain fogging up, close to blacking out, a noise filled the air. A deep, loud bellowing that could send fear in to the heart of any living creature. And a dark mass burst from the crowd, slamming in to Zuleika, causing her to let go of Marla. As she lay on the ground, gasping for air, Marla felt a hand on her shoulder. Looked up. Dr. Hawkins! That meant-

"My Lord, no! Please! Sir!" Zuleika was begging. She sounded terrified. While Hawkins checked over Marla, she looked over to see Khan, on top of Zuleika, holding her down with his legs pressed to her chest, while he held a knife at her throat. Amy, Zuleika's accomplice, was being detained by Harluf, his spear pointed up under her chin.

"Give me a single reason why I should not slit your throat and let your blood soak the ground, you moronic, mewling quim." Khan's voice was a true and very deep growl. The rage and utter disgust in his tone surpassed Marla's memory of her first encounter with Khan. His anger for her, a Starfleet officer, was nothing compared to what he showed one of his own kind, at this moment.

"Sh-She hit me!" Zuleika offered, weakly. "Look what she's done to my face!"

"I would have done far worse, had I been here," he told her with no remorse or sympathy. But he got off of her chest, rose to his feet, and went to Marla's side. Now that he was nearer, she saw that he was nearly covered in blood. They must have had a successful hunt, then. She hoped none of that blood was his.

"What are her injuries?" he asked Dr. Hawkins.

"Bruising on her arms. Near strangulation, that's already bruising up well. Her trachea seems fine, but she shouldn't talk for a while," the doctor answered. "And I'd put some clothes back on her, too."

Khan went back to Zuleika. He looked her in the eye, then commanded, "Strip."

"What?" gasped the Augment woman.

"I. Said. Strip." He obviously would not order her again.

Zuleika unzipped her jumpsuit, pulled off her boots, and stripped down to an old tank-shirt and white shorts that hugged on to her thighs and hip.

"Give that to me," Khan ordered, next, gesturing to the jumpsuit on the ground. Zuleika obeyed. He summoned Ling over, and handed it to her, and said, "Give this to Marla."

The bodyguard brought the suit over to Marla, who took it, and watched as Zuleika tried to stand and look less humiliated in her own under-wear. Khan held the stripped-down superwoman with his blood-freezing stare.

"You will suffer the same humiliation that you placed upon this woman. The rest of your punishment I will deliver to you later." As he turned away from her, he said to the rest of the camp, "I am ashamed of all of you. That you would allow this to happen in my absence. If we fight amongst ourselves, then what will become of dream that we all shared?" he let his soul-piercing stare pass over the assembled. "Let it be known, now, that the woman Marla McGivers is under my protection. If anyone else attempts to bring her harm, I will not hesitate to deliver punishment. If you attack any of your fellow colonists, I will seek retribution. Do you all understand?"

There were nods, and a few soft replies of, 'Yes, my Lord'. He called Weiss over. While he had been talking, Marla had been helped to her feet by Doctor Hawkins, and gotten in to the jumpsuit.

They walked away, going to the Medical Shuttle. On the way, Ling asked Marla, "How did you knock out her tooth?"

Marla swallowed. God, her throat hurt! But she managed to croak out, "Rock."

Ling smiled at her. "Nice." She actually sounded like she meant it.

Weiss and Ling stood guard outside of the shuttle while Marla had a more thorough exam with the Doctor. Khan stayed close, arms crossed over his chest. After the doctor had repeated what injuries the woman had sustained, they left and returned to their own dwelling.

"Do not let anyone enter unless I give them permission," he ordered his guards, and he helped Marla inside.

Marla stood in the center of the cabin. Khan had his back to her, hands still on the handle of the door. She didn't know what to do, and it hurt to talk or breathe through her mouth. Breathing through her nose, she waited for him to say something. Anything, really.

When he turned around and walked up to her, he didn't move like a human. With red blood, drying on his cheek and smeared across his pale skin, he didn't look like one, either. He looked every bit like the non-human, strange thing that he was. Even his eyes had lost their coldness, and now felt more like hot, blue flames. He looked over her face with those burning eyes, down her body. Up again.

"You were attacked, again," he rumbled.

She nodded. It was all she was capable of doing without hurting much.

"And you," he inhaled deeply, "Defended yourself… with a rock." He sounded as if he could either laugh or scream about that. She just nodded, again.

His hands rose up. His eyes held on to her own amber-brown ones, as his fingers wrapped around her shoulders. She held still, feeling all at once anxious and…well, to be honest with herself, more afraid of him now than she had been when he'd woken up and nearly strangled her. More afraid than when Zuleika tried to kill her tonight.

In the barest blink of an eye, his plump, full lips were on hers, and he pushed her back until she hit the back wall of the shuttle. She made no sounds and didn't move at all as her brain tried to catch up to what was happening. He started to press the full, hot length of his long body against hers, pinning her in place, while his lips practically devoured hers. Then she finally, shaking and worried she may fall apart in his hands, kissed him back. She moved her arms up, hands fisting the still blood-wetted shirt, and opened her mouth to his, letting him invade it with his tongue. He snarled, then, and pulled his mouth away from hers to move it down to her neck, where he kissed against her bruises.

The touch to her still tender throat made her whimper, and she pushed at his thick shoulder.

"K-Khan," her voice cracked, still too abused, too sore. She let out a croaking-yelp and forced out, "Stop!"

He froze. She took tiny, rapid breaths. Slowly he pulled himself away from her, and walked backward to the door to the shuttle. He turned away and opened the door, climbing out. Not a word was spoken. As the door shut with a clang, she dropped down to the floor. She shuddered from her head to her feet.

What in the name of God just happened?!

Khan's POV

He paced, back and forth along the riverbank. He moved with all the grace and the forbidding air of a panther locked up inside of a cage.

I am in a cage, he thought.

When he had told Jim Kirk and Commander Spock, in a time that seemed like ages ago, that he was a savage, he had meant it. He was bred and born to be so. Born to be a pitiless, merciless, completely animalistic killer in the heat of battle. Taught to be ruthless when he was seeking victory, and not to look back with any regret once he had achieved his goal. He thrilled in the chase- the hunt- and he reveled in the spill of blood, the finality of a well-placed kill. For all his intellect and his genius, he was still a dangerous killer.

This afternoon's hunt of the bison had been so very good for that buried need for such violent delights. He and his hunting party- his best and strongest men and women for the job (though Ericsson had been included to keep him away from Marla. He had noticed his patterns) had taken down two massive, hulking creatures, with their stone knives and their primitive arrows, and a few well-aimed phaser shots. When he had sliced in to the things with his own knife, letting the blood splatter and smear on his clothes and his face (now dry and making his shirt and trousers stiff from it, flaking off of his cheek) he had felt alive again. Along with that sensation of being the most powerful hunter on the planet, he had felt the elation of knowing, in the more rational part of his brain, that he had provided meat, as well as valuable skins to be used for many, many purposes. He had proven his mettle as their Lord Emperor.

However that rush of chemicals to his brain had also made it difficult for him to hold back his wrath when he had returned to the camp, met Liam at the river, and heard that Marla was being attacked by Zuleika, again. He had had to fight all of his instincts to break the Augment woman apart, and let her bleed out in front of the masses. Even with this blatant violation, he could not lose any more of his people. One was too much. Any more, especially the women (vital to making the population of their race spread) was unacceptable.

Yet, Marla…

Oh, Marla.

She had given him yet another unexpected turn. Rather than run, hide, or seek out help, she had attempted to fight off the threat. She had shown her brilliance again, and her tenacity, in a way that could not be questioned.

"When angry she is keen and shrewd," he said to the darkness of the night, while he continued his stalking along the river. "Though she be but little, she is fierce." He stopped and threw his head back, and laughed. Laughed to the stars and the glowing yellow orb of Ceti Alpha VI.

With these things in his mind, and the thrill of the blood lust still singing in his veins, he had nearly lost control of himself and pounced upon her. He had wanted to take hold of her, pull the ferocity and tenacity that was hidden deep inside that tiny human woman, and make it a part of himself. He had wanted to take her apart in an entirely different way!

She had awoken in him a savagery that he had not known he could feel.

Oh, he had begun to admire her in ways, he would not deny that. But her mind had been what he coveted. He was willing to do anything, even play-act as the noble King to gain her loyalty; even if he had to seduce her to keep anyone else from utilizing that brain before he could squeeze every ounce of knowledge from her. He had even begun to respect that she had a will, and that she could stand up to a challenge when issued one.

He had never expected this. This pure, primal lust.

Her mind was not enough, now. He still needed it for the survival of his people, but this new sensation (this want) made it clear. He couldn't play the reserved 'noble' lover, anymore. He would rip out of his own skin if he had to do that, now. He had to have her. He had to take her!

Not yet, his reason reminded him. No, he did have to wait. Let her body heal from the abuse it had suffered. Let his own loss of control pass- apologize to her, make it clear that he was still worthy of her trust- and then, then he would claim her soft little body. With that he would have this awakened hunger sated, have her brilliance to use to enhance his kingdom, and her devotion to let him rule over her, and no one-

Not anyone

-Would be able to take her away from him.

He would have her entirely. Body, mind, and soul.

AN: I think I'd like to take this time to point out that in the near future… there will be smut. Not hard-core, crazy smut, but sexy-fun times are ahead. Obviously, as this is an 'M' rated story, and it's not just for the gore, the blood, and the very blatant violence. So, if you are under the age of 18, or if you are not a fan of the very strong smuts, I suggest skipping the next chapter or two. If you however are exempt from the two exceptions above, get yourselves ready. Hint hint, wink wink.