A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone! I will be better about posting, as I will be updating more chapters this week. School's kind of hectic right now. Anyway, hope you enjoy this. As always, please R&R!

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They fell into a comfortable routine over the next few days. Then the few days grew into a period of weeks as they continued gathering and foraging, tending to their survival during the daylight hours, while spending their nights slaking their desire with intense bouts of lovemaking.

They never spoke of the relays during this time. The data PADDs lay unused and untouched upon the cave floor. Instead, each day brought them closer to understanding each other, and closer to an indefinable feeling they both were tentative to explore, and yet began to shape itself before their very eyes. Nyota began to worry, and tried to fight the increasing feeling of panic inside her.

She didn't want this, didn't need this—thing between them to complicate what had been before him, a violent, though simple, existence. This was a new world before her, deep and fresh, verdant and growing in leaps and bounds, and yet—she was convinced it couldn't last. After all, wasn't this part of the agreement? Wasn't this what she wanted?

She felt selfish for wanting him, for wanting there to be—something between them. Her heart ached when she thought of her sister, she felt derelict in her duties to the one who was not bonded by choice or circumstance, but by blood. She couldn't stop the tide of song that wailed in her veins each time she looked at him, the pull of rebellious and anxious lust when she was near him, and yet—she wondered if she would, if she would give this up to save Zuri. She closed her eyes, her body trembling at the thought of being separated from Spock.

She needed to do something, anything to get her sister back. She knew that trusting Sylek was a now a moot point, he'd never help her now, even if she delivered Spock to him, their agreement had been broken. She sighed heavily. She couldn't stay on this planet forever, pretending that there was more to them than just a raw, carnal physicality. There could never be more between them. After all, she was—no, is—an assassin. Her mind buzzed and her stomach churned. A small flicker of hope burned inside her and she cruelly smothered it, tempered it with what she saw as cold reality.

She and Spock were only temporary. It would never work between them. His people would never accept them. He could barely accept them. She could feel in his mind, arbitrary thoughts of incertitude and reluctance whenever they made love—she stopped her line of thinking. Sex, she corrected, because that's all it ever was. Her mouthed twisted into a thin, harsh line. Spock's feelings of disinclination were mutual, she decided quickly. After they were found, he'd return to his world of duty and obligation, and she to hers. She didn't need him. A thought formed in mind, then began to build into a torrent of thought and conjecture as her mind swirled. She smiled bitterly, angrily coming to a resolution, her mind certain and distant, while her heart pulled harshly inside her.

She looked up as Spock came to her, his lips quirked up at the corners, his hand reaching out for her own. She clasped his hand, and he gently pulled her to her feet. She stood and pressed herself closely to him, her breasts straining against the thin material of her shirt, her heart hammering with fear and desire and her thoughts tripping like rapid fire. Her breath caught in her throat as he lowered his head and his lips brushed her own softly and sweetly.

*

They were walking in the wild brush, the errant sweep of silver grasses rustled in the cool wind and the birds called forlornly in the distance. Nyota knelt beside Spock, ignoring the tendril of want that swept against her as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin of her wrist. She fought a smile as he then took a finger and blazed a trailed across her arm. She paused a moment, and then shook him off, and pointed to the vegetation that struggled beneath the layer of crusted ice.

She shot him a look and began to dig beneath the frozen earth. Spock followed suit, his long and delicate fingers making quick work of the layers of hidden greenery.

"You are—upset," he noted as they gathered their comestibles. Nyota shrugged.

"I'm not."

Spock said nothing as he continued to place the roots into their packs, and instead he touched her softly, sending waves of peace into her mind.

She rebelled, pushing against his intrusion and sweeping his peaceful thoughts from her mind. She glared at him and stood.

"I think we have enough here," she huffed.

Nyota ignored his gaze and turned her back to him and abruptly shut him from her mind, placing stern barriers throughout, and displacing his attempts to connect with her. She was so intent on her mental task that she almost missed the streak in the sky, the tell tale trail of atmosphere as a ship breached the heavens, shooting across the distance to land on firm ground.

Nyota gasped, her eyes incising the distance, pulling away the stretches of space to see the ship as it materialized. Her breath caught in her throat as they found the bright colors standing in stark relief against the dark, unrelieved stretch of blackness. The smooth edges of the ship sailed elegantly through the air and Nyota stepped back.

"Spock," she called out, unknowingly reaching out to him and he came to stand next to her, his eyes also tracking the ship in the distance, his face indiscernible.

She narrowed her eyes and he gazed at her, his eyes taking in the tension in her body and his ears sensing the rapid beating of her heart.

"Spock, we have to go!," she warned, "Now, now! Run!"

He did not question her. They raced across the frozen plains, their legs pushing them past twisted stretches of trees and they splashed across frosty puddles of watery ice.

They rushed into a thick line of shrubbery, squatting down and hiding beneath their silvery leaves and torsioned limbs. Nyota could pick up figures in the distance; she could see their tread as they came closer, their weapons raised high.

"Come on," Nyota urged and Spock nodded.

They sped through the cover of forest, rushing through the bracken and thickets that shimmered in the bright sunlight. They had nearly made it to safety of the cave, when Spock suddenly fell.

"Spock!," Nyota screamed as his body hit the ground. She dropped and knelt beside him, her hands frantically searching. Her hand came away with blood.

"No," she moaned, her eyes filling with tears and her body screaming as their bond was inundated with pain.

They were surrounded. Nyota stood and saw the men as they came traipsing from the forest, their black leather jerkins emblazoned with the colors of their homeworld. By Tor, she thought, slavers. She growled low and hard. She would fight each and every one of them.

She rushed the first two men closest to her, dodging their fire and hitting them with hard kicks to the head and chest, watching in satisfaction as they went down. She was running quickly towards another, her legs moving efficiently through space, her eyes promising death, when she felt a stab of pain at the back of her head. Darkness covered her vision and she fell, her limbs unresponsive to her commands and she fought the rising tide of unconsciousness for as long as she could, then gave in, her eyes closing as she fell limp upon the ground.

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