In Weyoun and Mia, at the start of the twenty-first chapter, after returning to Cardassia, Weyoun is harnessing his fighting skills he inherited from his beloved - and Damar walks in on him. It's been hard not to make Yelgrun and Lynet's experience too much like that.

Chapter Twenty

Broken Dreams and Advanced Passion

Cardassian way of life was sharp and proud. To even be here was a relief from the frontlines, for his wife's sake, but also a great disappointment. The Founder, Weyoun and Gul Damar as well as the rest of the armies retreated when their reinforcements vanished in the wormhole just like that, and Dukat himself had been left behind. According to Weyoun, he was a failure and would not be welcomed back. He might as well be spending however long of his life in a Federation prison cell.

But Yelgrun right now was focused on himself and his wife, and the temporary home they were given. Which meant while the armies and supplies of white in space were being reconstructed, he had the break to spend with his Lynet.

He watched as she walked around the quarters, knowing when and where she was going by now that he was in the room and mapped it all out despite his weak eyesight, transferred it to her as in place of a VISOR. Pretty soon she didn't even need her cane anymore because he helped her "see" better if not the way she used to. Feeling and sensation was more important than sight itself.

Even as he helped her settle in after placing his Jem'Hadar on guard, as he beheld the sight of his men as they departed, he sneered when he thought of the one man who betrayed not only him in the past, but their people and the Founders. Not many weeks ago, Keevan's ship had been attacked and driven away from the main ketracel-white facility, leaving it vulnerable, and crash-landed on a dark-matter nebula of a planet and sacrificed his Jem'Hadar unit to save his own skin. The white supply was low, the communications beyond repair, but none of it made it right to describe the rebel Vorta's actions.

Keevan was a traitor and a disgrace - everything Yelgrun ever said he was.

The last he heard of his former student and friend was that he was somewhere in Federation space, resting comfortably as a prisoner of war. Surrendered so easily and without a fight! Yelgrun angrily slammed his palm flat on the table and hissed at the pain that shot through his hand. But it fed his ebbing anger and hatred at the younger Vorta even more. He had wished that Keevan would do something to make him lose favor with the Founders, and it came to fruition that it made him inhale and exhale to feel the rush of pleasure through his body. Never mind that he was over what broken, unrequited affection for the other who rejected it, he still hated Keevan for this.

"Yelgrun?" His wife's voice was heard behind him that he did not sense her coming. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing that will concern you," he said bluntly, not turning around to look at her. She tsked and walked up to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and resting her chin on his shoulder.

"But it concerns me that it bothers you."

He sighed and relented. Never was there any use in letting her pester him. "Well, nothing much except the case of one of our own who, shall we say...turned against us," he answered, making her frown.

One of Lynet's hands came up and caressed his face as an act of tenderness. "Would this happen to be the one who...made you uncertain of ever finding someone like me?" she asked. "The one you loved but didn't love you back?"

Yelgrun's breath hitched as he closed his eyes, blocking the entire truth from her as best he could. He loathed keeping the secret from her as he had come to despise keeping the truth of her blindness from her all this time, but it had to be done. "You could say that. But you won't be happy to know that unlike other races, the Vorta are...opened in terms of sexuality." Perhaps he shouldn't have said that after all, but she had to know the truth. She pulled her hands back and "looked" at him in shock.

"Yelgrun, you're telling me that you're...neither homosexual or straight?" she asked, flabbergasted. "The Vorta and the Dominion has absolutely no problem with it? Where I'm from, that sort of issue with sexuality is best kept private." Both eyebrows raised. Why didn't you tell me before?

"Why"? he returned. Would you have been disgusted by that fact?

Her face had been filled with disbelief, now softened. "I'm sorry," she said, her tone matching her face. "I shouldn't have assumed anything contradictory."

Apology accepted. "His name is Keevan." Even saying the name aloud made him sick again. "Didn't end well."

"I gathered that. But what happened?"

He cleared his throat and sat down in front of her, looking up at her as she remained standing and comfortable as she wanted him to tell her everything that he never confided her in before. He owed her now. "He was a friend of mine ever since I took him under my wing, when he was a newly activated member to the ranks, but while he tried to be the same as us all, he was actually more...rebellious, to put it frankly. Even though I knew the Founders never cared, that didn't mean I would turn on them. None of us can, as you know. I sometimes think Keevan saw it, too, but he was a good little Vorta like I was," he admitted with a small laugh that meant no humor. She didn't laugh, though, not that he expected her to. "He was the opposite of me, but I think I began to see more than I did before, Lynet. He was gifted, bright and filled with life, feisty - like you."

He gave her a smile that she returned, but it faded from both their faces in a matter of time. "Though, just like you in the beginning, he couldn't stand my lack of patience. He constantly pointed it out from time to time, reminding me more often than Kilana ever did when she came along afterwards." He stopped there, feeling the clench return; he had not thought of this for some time now, and it was slowly coming back to the surface that he tried to shove it down. "Over that time, in spite of our constant disagreements, I began to have...Lynet, I'm sorry." He quickly turned away from her, wishing he couldn't deal with this right now. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't burden you with this.

No, please tell me. What happened between you?

"I developed the feelings for him that I have for you now...but he didn't feel that way," Yelgrun confessed. "One day, I crossed the line. I went beyond where I should have drawn the line, should have known even before I confessed. Keevan exploded on me, I lost my temper and called him nothing in retaliation, tried to kiss him and when I did, things got worse from there. He struck out at me and cursed me, called for security and let me be taken in for assault." He never once looked me in the eyes again after that, or even spoke to me anymore, until that one time when this war began. When we first arrived in the Alpha Quadrant.

A long tension lingered between them for awhile before he sensed the cracking of her soul. He allowed his gaze to travel to her eyes - and there was the tear rolling down her cheek. There was no spoken words between them in that moment, both aloud and in their link. She was not sure what to say or do at this point, and he was worried that she would turn her back to him because he admitted to assaulting a young man whose trust he should have kept solid, should have worked harder on himself...

Love can make you blind, make you not see some things in front of you.

He was not sure if she said it herself, or if it was spoken from somewhere above them, or anywhere else they could not recall hearing it from, but it did not matter. What mattered was that she knew the wrong he did, but she didn't flee from him.

She knelt down in front of him and cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand, making him look at her, into her milky, sightless eyes and at her painful smile. He pushed you away. I tried to push you away, but it was because I was afraid of you, I was helpless and lost everything I had. He didn't understand you well, just like I didn't understand you. But I know the man you really are now - you have a heart.

So do you. And you never thought you would ever show it.

~o~

She had gotten better with herself as of lately, but Yelgrun had not yet had the chance to do it for himself. No wonder he was still pretty slow compared to herself. "Excuse me," he exclaimed when she allowed him to see this, and they shared a laugh when he brought her to a reserved gym in the Cardassian Central Command. "But I got time on my hands to lead the troops into battle, negotiate and all the likes. We're in a war now, so we'll be back out there in no time - but now I got enough time to fix it with you." He winked down at her; she "saw" he was.

"Then I'll have to go easy on you, Senior Field Supervisor," she purred, leaning up to lick along his ear playfully, only making him chuckle deep, just sending a shiver of pleasure through his spine without directly arousing him. "Slow old man versus a faster younger lady..."

He interrupted her with a bark of laughter. "Excuse me, 'young lady'," he mocked when they stopped after entering through the doorway, the doors closing behind them, "but you have not been in real combat for many months now. I might be an old man in appearance as you put it, but that means I have more stamina than you." He shrugged. "But you'll be teaching me, so what do I know about combat?"

Seeing through his eyes the layout and the fact they were on softer ground covering harder one, and wearing her shorts and shirt, Lynet saw this as her time to strike and threw herself down, spinning and throwing her leg out under him, catching him off-guard and his body hitting the floor, landing straight on his back. He was stunned for the moment, as no one had ever done this to him before, and he lay there laughing his behind off. Lynet knew that she stunned him and bruised his pride. "I did the job very well, baby," she told him. "I took you off and wounded what meant most to you. Who knows how long you'll get it back after today."

"Believe me, it's something I know all too well," he told her when he slowly got up, and on his knees, looking up at her. "Why did you have to do that, hm?"

"Something I first learned a long time ago, when I got into Starfleet," she answered. "No one ever waits for you, so you always have to be prepared for any move that you'd never expect. They never went soft on me just because I was a female." She was sixteen years old when her already hardened body began to sustain the training bruises - blood in the case of the Klingon martial arts - in her skin, the pain in her legs and arms, sometimes her entire body, lasting for weeks at a time. Yelgrun might not be any luckier than she.

He scoffed and stood up, dusting himself off. "You're not going soft on me, Lynet; I'm glad you're not soft as anyone else would expect you to become. How do I fight back? Like...this?" He threw his fist that he made out at her, but she ducked and then dove beneath him, standing up gracefully. He whirled around and followed her with his eyes. "Oh, you haven't lost your touch, yes."

"That's right. Now, come and get me, big boy," she sneered, wishing she had her optics back on normal so the old twinkle of mischief in her eyes was for his only. She threw another kick at him and shot him in the middle of the abdomen, overwhelming that part of his body with a burst of mild pain, but this wasn't the kind his body was used to. "Be a man and take me out because I've been a bad girl."

Woman, why do you do this to me?

Because it's my job to put you on your toes. You've done it to me before; now it's my turn to return the favor.

She knew the blow was coming, but it did not reach her face as he never laid a hand on her. If it were another she was fighting, then she would have taken it willingly. But her own husband striking her would make her retaliate both physically and mentally - and emotionally - and not want anything to do with him for as long as she wanted. He knew by now to respect her wishes.

By the time the fist fighting was done, it was moving onto the use of kar'takin and Jem'Hadar combat daggers, both of which she was familiar with and felt the power surge through her veins as to hold the deadly blades in both of her hands - it was a power that she never thought she would convey again. To hear the terrible clashing of blades and the piercing slicing effect through her eardrums instead of seeing them, the soundwaves getting to Yelgrun's as well, was never enough that she could get.

When it was done, she found herself flat on her back, but only because she let him. The true enemy in front of you never let you win that easily. Yelgrun knew that as he loomed over her with his knife at her throat, both great swords tossed aside. To lie on her back for a change felt like a relief for her aching bones. "Mine are sore, too," he told her with one corner of his mouth twitching in amusement. "But I think this was worth it. I've learned enough in one day."

Lynet batted her lashes at him. "Don't be too sure. There's more to come."

"I've got plenty of time to learn from you."

They were back at their quarters and in the sonic shower as usual, before they dried off and settled down on the bed together, both tired to their bones after the excitement. It was then that Lynet remembered an important factor she hadn't thought of for a long time. "Kayley used to play fight with me when we were children," she said. "But it was never anything real. It was just something she did to show me how it worked, even though she wasn't skilled in martial arts and was always afraid of our parents finding out."

"You never told me much about her besides...before she died," Yelgrun said, slightly surprised. "What brought this up?"

She shrugged. "I hadn't thought of it for years. It's one of the few good times I remember. I was really young when I was exposed to fist fights. In school, I saw them all the time but never got into them. Kayley and Mother always drilled it into me - but my mother notably - that a young lady who wouldn't be a soldier should never do such things. But Julianna was too...old-fashioned at times. I suppose she wanted both daughters to be what she never was, yet she could never do anything to stop me. I ended up living wild and then joining Starfleet as you know."

He rumbled with laughter in his throat before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "I'm glad you were a little rebel. I don't know if I'd like a passive girl for a wife in your place," he purred.

~o~

For the next couple months - or barely - to follow, he sustained bruises and barely broken bones as it was, but it was nothing permanent. Kilana even noticed with a barely hidden smirk that he was finally getting into what his wife excelled at, but how could Yelgrun say he enjoyed a little pain? He had never been an athlete in four lifetimes, and neither was the original Yelgrun. Sometimes he thought commanding Jem'Hadar was enough of a nuisance, but this was twice as high.

You like having fun with me and you know it, Lynet teased, making him roll his eyes. What's romance without a little hurt and danger?

He snorted and laughed at the same time. I think you're right. It's boring without either. Maybe we should start taking our "bed time" to more extreme levels? I have in mind leather bonds, whips perhaps, blindfolds... In fact, he'd overheard Gelnon talking about it to Kilana, who passed it onto Yelgrun himself as she heard the other male Vorta had interest in coaxing his unnamed lady partner into taking their own relationship to the next level, asked Kilana for her opinion, to which she nervously said if he wanted to, then go for it. Uncertain being the keyword.

"I don't know about you and Lynet," she admitted, "because it might bring back memories..."

He did not recall her telling him how her attacker had tied her up with leather as means of spicing things up. If he did, then she would not have kept it from her husband. "Perhaps I'll take it up with my wife," he told Kilana, who relaxed and agreed with him.

And then she gave him her answer. I've never been whipped before, but I'm told it hurts. I don't know about it. Have you? she questioned.

No, he confessed. He was with her on this; he had no idea what it felt like to be struck behind, but it never hurt to try.

To see her spread out on the bed, laying facedown like that - and the pattern of marks on her behind and back, some other parts - and at his mercy thrilled him to his core and seemed to do so to her. She had been nervous at first, but so was he. He could not remember the last time he felt such trepidation - and it was the first time he acknowledged being afraid of hurting her, for sure. He couldn't remember feeling it before, either.

Perhaps bondage wasn't to be their style after all. But that was only if she wanted him to, and so far she hadn't asked him to stop. Yet he couldn't stop the uncertainty of it.

"Lynet, perhaps we should ease up," he told her in spite of himself. "Something tells me that it's too...painful." He found himself looking down at her exposed chest curves and arms, could have sworn the much softer side of himself was getting to him. He thought it might be beneficial enough to keep their relationship as it was before, that not all things had to be based on the way others lived. "I mean, I don't know if I'll one day lose control and break your..."

"Mind," she said, knowing that her body had nothing to do with this. He nodded. "My mind broke a long time ago; there's no reason it will now, but you're right. Bondage isn't us." Her sweet smile formed. "Maybe stick to just tying to the bed and taking control without whips and such."

Yelgrun grinned that they had an agreement, that their times in the gym would be enough room for bruises and broken bones - and then the computer called him and said the Female Founder wanted to see him.

~o~

Lynet just did not understand this. Why would the Founders be sending her husband off of the planet and to a deceased, abandoned station which was the sister of Deep Space 9? Empok Nor had not been touched in years, from her little understanding. "How long will you be gone?" she asked after he got done telling her why.

Keevan, his former friend and the "traitor", was being taken to Empok Nor, held by a group of Ferengi. For the last couple of months, he was in detention by the Federation after what Yelgrun told her he pulled off with Captain Sisko and his crew after they destroyed the chief white facility in their space. His own Jem'Hadar forfeited for his own life? She could understand he thought his own life was important more than drug-starved monstrous soldiers, but with the Dominion, it was not okay in any form. Termination implants were for in the events of capture - she still considered it crueler than any existence. No matter her husband telling her the history between him and the other Vorta, Keevan must have been smarter than the rest of his people.

"I'm leaving in a few hours, but the men are ready when I am," Yelgrun answered as he held her close to him. "I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest, dear. The Founder could have chosen another, but it was me she first thought of. It's obvious why." The bitterness was crystal clear. They're laughing because of what transpired, and I won't be surprised if they are keen of getting rid of me.

That alone made her heart freeze. If that was true, then she might end up losing him on this "mission". It would mean that those Ferengi might have a hidden agenda and she knew what they were like. "I would be careful if I were you," she told him, gripping his hand in hers. "Those Ferengi are cunning..."

"I'll keep it in mind," he promised, returning the squeeze. "All I can think about is getting Keevan and getting out fast. The Founder is more than ready to see him executed for his crime. I'll be damned if he isn't. I won't stand to see his face again." I love you now, he swore, because you are the life that he never gave me. After I retrieve him and bring him back for debriefing and execution, I'll come home safe and sound. He placed a kiss on her lips as the seal, refreshing her senses and easing her worries.

You'd better. I don't want to lose you.

I couldn't help but decide it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of Weyoun/Mia in these two's practice fighting. To have the lovers in this position has become somewhat of a signature in the Vorta Brides Trilogy. :)

Now we're getting into "The Magnificent Ferengi", where it is obvious what will become of the couple if no one has read "Forged in the Desert Heat"; I still recommend it and its predecessor if you haven't seen yet. I know a lot of you are wondering when Lynet will get her eyes back, and the answer is very soon. ;) Stay tuned!