Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. See a timelier update; which is a good thing since apparently I left you with a cliffhanger even though I didn't realize it was one. However, because you guys have no idea where David is, I can see how that qualifies. Thankfully for everyone, I wrote this chapter at the same time I did the previous one. It just took me a little while to proofread because I had family visiting.

Warnings: Minor character death, children in danger, past sexual assault, past sexual assault of a minor, discussion of sexual slavery, and me trying to do another action sequence. The last one took three attempts and a lot of guidance from my wonderful beta. This is why I normally just skip over this stuff and focus on emotions. Since this story diverges greatly from the movies, I had to do my own big damn hero moment climax this time. However, since I'm doing my own we will have different big damn heroes than usual as was evident by Gaila being in charge of the extraction of Amanda.

Chapter 25: I will save myself. Thank you very much.

Jim wanted to go into the compound with phasers blazing and get Nyota the hell out of there. Instead, they were perched behind a rock formation in the way too hot New Vulcan desert waiting for nightfall. Why couldn't the bad guys build their secret compound in one of the nice forests on the planet? Or at least one of the deserts by the beach. Yes, such places do exist. Jim has pictures.

They were also waiting patiently to confirm that Nyota was in the building. They were currently working on breaking into the surveillance system as well as getting their own cameras in place, but it was taking a little while. If Spock was here, they would already been in.

Jim acknowledged reluctantly that the waiting and the mission in general wouldn't be so horrible if it didn't require him to spend quality time with his- Agent 13. Wasn't it just lovely that the other agents on this op were staying away from them? Okay, maybe they were making themselves scarce because he may have caused one of the hackers to pee his pants when he was unable to do the simplest thing.

He refuses to think of 13 as his stepmom, but rather a fellow officer, one who is treating him like a child, despite the fact that he's been a Captain for almost 3 ½ years. She can't really be his step-mom if he has no mom. Except he does and it's not that he is unhappy Winona is alive it's just- this is really not the time to focus on personal issues. At least not personal issues unrelated to Alexander Fucking Marcus and his mass kidnapping for who knows why. Could they please hurry up with the fucking cameras?

"You know she does care. I tried to talk her out of going to your wedding but…" And now Agent 13 was trying to play family therapist. Good luck there. Even Dr. Margarita is unwilling to touch that.

"That was not caring, that was stalking." Jim shot back harshly cutting her off. Jim needs to be on his best game to get his friend back. Maybe he should take over for the idiots working on communications? Things would be going so much faster.

"She was trying to keep you safe. Frank wants her dead. He wants you dead. We are probably going to have to move after this if we can't find a concrete reason to lock him up. Georgia is going to be furious." She said that last part as if she actually cared how Georgia with feel about moving and his heart hurts just a little bit more, because of it. Why did the new baby get a decent step-parent?

"He's really that powerful?" Jim asked trying to change the subject at least a little.

"Frank is at the top of one of the major criminal syndicates in this quadrant or at least we think he is. They specialize in black market Vulcan artifacts, sentient trafficking, and possibly weapons. I've been working on this case for years, trying to follow him to his big boss who may or may not be Marcus. It's how I ended up in Section 31 after his removal from Starfleet." 13 explained and that just made Jim more worried. Anybody who teams up with Frank had to have the morality of a serial killer.

"Is that the only reason why you married my mother?" She actually smiles when he asked the question. Then Jim realized he said mother instead of Winona. "I mean…"

"I know what you mean. Things right now are messy and complicated and the current situation makes it even more so, but I do love…" Just then she was cut off by the sound of his communicator. He was really hoping it was the team with visuals on the compound. He wanted to get Nyota out now. Even more, he wanted Agent 13 to stop talking about Winona.

"Kirk here." Jim answered curtly.

"We have Grayson. She is safe now." Gaila said quickly. This is the first time that Jim has ever heard Gaila reference her mentor solely by her last name. He exhaled in relief. That was one less thing to worry about. He couldn't take losing another mom.

"The other elder?" 13 asked grabbing the communicator from him.

"She's okay, well, not okay. I don't know what he gave her to make her so meek and obedient. Neither does T'Ray's cousin because he was otherwise occupied at the time. Grayson suggested we do a rape kit so…" Gaila trailed off. Jim didn't like that. He was worried what that meant for his mother-in-law.

"One for Amanda as well?" He asked worriedly.

"No, but that's only because the prick was too much of a Vulcan supremacists to actually rape a human. Thank the universe for small favors." He easily picked up on her use of the past tense.

"So I take it Sunk is dead?" Jim asked calmly trying not to get his hopes up.

"Yes, and unfortunately I wasn't the one to do it though I really wanted to be." Gaila said with a hint of annoyance. "I wasn't allowed to have a weapon and the sniper was a little too slow on the draw. Evidently, T'Ray is excellent at organizing a Plan B and getting revenge on evil exes."

"What happened?" Jim sighed.

"Apparently, Sunk made the mistake of filling his ranks with security staff members that take their oaths to protect all councilmembers more seriously than their loyalty to him. One of his detail also happened to be related to the only Vulcan member of Section 31. A member that Sunk just happened to humiliate during their arranged engagement." She sounded as if she was smirking.

"And let's not forget, they love Amanda's cookies." The way she said it Jim was positive she was being entirely serious. He could almost see Amanda bribing the Vulcan security staff with her cookies. Her vegan chocolate chip was so good you'd forget that it's vegan. Plus booze or in this case the Vulcan equivalent is always good for making friends.

"Everybody loves Amanda's cookies." Jim quipped.

"They really are that good."

"The chatter is not necessary. Can we please get back on point?" Agent 13 forcefully requested from beside him. Jim just rolled his eyes. A few minutes ago she had no trouble whatsoever chatting about how his mom deserves forgiveness and what a bastard Frank is. (No argument there.)

"It turns out Sunk was a sick son of a bitch who set up the entire thing so Spock would see his mother killed in front of him. I have no idea what you guys are walking into." He wanted to say something about they were not walking into anything because Agent 13 decided that they stay in observation mode until the morons break into the security system, but he didn't. He was just really glad that his Spock was safe aboard Enterprise. Things would go completely to hell otherwise.

"Where's Dr. Grayson now?" Agent 13 asked before Jim could.

"Getting treatment." Gaila responded. "Nothing serious Jim. She's fine, just cuts and bruises. She was also knocked out a few times." That worried Jim. Who knows what could have happen while Amanda was unconscious?

"What about the junior target?" Agent 13 asked in regards to David.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. He's not here."

"Shit!" Jim murmured into the comm.

"What do you mean he's not there?" They usually unflappable Agent 13 screamed into the phone.

"Grayson Junior is not here. We're going through the transporter logs but..." Just then he heard phaser fire and explosions coming from the compound. Jim really wished they had cameras working in the building right now.

"Gaila we have to go." Jim is not even sure he hung up, but it doesn't matter. Observation time was over. They had no choice but to go in.

Nyota was alone now that Jane was gone, if you don't count the three burly security guards and the bastard who murdered Carol Marcus. The man keeps watching her as if he wants to screw her on the nearest surface. If you told her two weeks ago that she would despise the person who killed Carol Marcus with a fiery passion, she would say you were crazy. In all fairness though, she didn't know the whole story two weeks ago. She thought she had. She thought Carol was this horrible woman who'd broken Spock's heart to the point where he couldn't let Nyota or anyone else in.

Now she realized she didn't know a lot of things two weeks ago. Such as Carol was just a child who was forced to grow up too quickly and for too long she's been letting her daddy issues keep her from letting someone into her heart.

Also, until two weeks ago she hadn't been completely aware of how corrupt Starfleet had become or how little had been done in the last three years to undo the damage caused by people like Johnson and Marcus. They were trying hard, but nothing was different.

Marcus and his cronies were still doing everything in their power to trigger a war with the Klingons. Their latest scheme involved installing Councilmen Sunk as a puppet leader of New Vulcan and capitalizing on the Vulcan paranoia created by the destruction of their world to create weapons of mass destruction or something like that, if what she was hearing was to be believed. She heard bits and pieces of said plan as she tried to act like she was getting the information they wanted.

The weapon they wanted the most was AH325. It was the stuff of comic book legends and could make an ordinary person into a superhuman (if what she was translating proved to be true, not that she was giving them an accurate translation). So of course Marcus wanted his hands on it. She was being held by gunpoint to get access to the AH325 files and Jane was taken away to get the necessary "ingredients" to re-create the serum. Considering the main ingredient in AH325 was an antibody only found in augment blood, getting that resource will involve a visit to wherever they were storing the bodies Enterprise found on NCX17. But if Nyota had no idea where they took the bodies to, then she doubted the scientist did.

If the clock on the computer they were forcing her to use was accurate, Jane left an hour ago. She wasn't sure she could trust the time. Regardless, she has decrypted and semi-successfully translated 20 pages of data. She could modify a translation program to do it, but doing it by hand gave her more time and allowed her to modify key things just enough so the experiment wouldn't work but not so much that they would realize what she'd done. So far her gamble had worked.

'Hurry, the fuck up Jim.' She thought to herself. She wanted out of this place before she got killed or worse.

The chair that they had her in was hard and uncomfortable. It was hurting her back which is why she kept wiggling to the point where one of the screws popped up. When that happened she realize that the chair was not that secure. She could use that to her advantage. She had to. She was through waiting for Jim to show up. She had to get out of here on her own and hope that she wouldn't die of dehydration in the desert before making her way back to Vulcan civilization.

Half an hour later all the screws were gone from the chair and safely tucked away in the bottom of her shoe without her captors being none the wiser. If she adjusted her top just right the security guards did not pay attention to anything else. That strategy was probably the reason why Eric sent the rest of the team away.

He was either going to kill her because he realized she was making the translation and decryption of the files as difficult as possible to buy herself time to escape or he was going to do something worse. Considering he was now next to her and his right hand was caressing her breast, she's going to go with worse. She pushed him away with the hand they'd untied to allow her to use the computer more efficiently.

"Don't touch me." She said forcefully.

"Why are you changing your mind now? You were being such a tease a few minutes ago. Don't make this hard on yourself." He stroked her other breast. It took all her strength not to regurgitate the food they finally gave her two hours ago. The touch of him made her entire body prickle with disgust. "You see what cooperation can get you."

"Yes, being chained to a chair with phasers pointed at my back as you force me to break into a Starfleet database." She snapped as his hands moved lower. She wanted to break that hand. He responded by placing a hand around her throat.

"As opposed to you being down in the dungeons, chained to the wall and having no option to consent." He grabbed her pants and tugged them down with his free hand. She was about 10 seconds from kicking him in the dick.

"What option! I know you'll do whatever you want regardless of my decision." She snapped back.

"If you let me continue without fighting, at least you'll enjoy it and maybe I'll get you a better chair and something else to wear." He gestured to her uniform that was in tatters.

"It would probably be a golden bikini." She snarked as she pushed him as hard as she could, causing him to fall to the floor.

"I think you would look good in that." He said getting off the ground.

"That's okay, I like this chair." She said getting up and taking the chair with her in her hands. Before Eric could reach his phaser, she deftly swung it at his head knocking him unconscious. Pity, he still breathing, she thought. The motion caused the chair to break apart allowing her more freedom of movement.

She hears footsteps in the hall and quickly takes both of his phasers. Just to be safe, she fires a shot at the guy who just tried to rape her. Despite it being on the kill setting, he continues to breathe. This surprises her because he doesn't have the super strength of the others. Shit! No time to think about that now.

At the sound of phaser fire, three guards come into the room. She swiftly kills them all. More security guards were already filling the room. Two more guards fell down to the ground. She silently thanked her former roommate for making her go to shooting practice so often as well as learning to shoot with both hands. That skill has really, really come in handy today. She grabbed another weapon and a couple of old-school grenades along with one of the guard's tactical backpack. She hoped there was some food and water in there. She was getting the hell out of here now even if she had to kill everyone in the compound to do it.

She shot three more guards on her way through the compound. She detonated one of the grenade bombs to make it harder for the goons to follow her. She finally made it to the last secure door. Thankfully, she could open it with the card she swiped from dead guard number four. Unfortunately, as soon as she opened the door, she could see another tactical team making their way towards the compound. She made ready to throw another one of the grenades. It was her best shot at getting out. That's when she heard, "Princess Leia, put the weapon down."

It was her codename. She had no idea where Jim had gotten it from, but she knew it was him. His crazy plan actually worked.

"What took you so long farmboy?" She asked exhaustedly before she collapsed.

XXXXXX

Amanda and Nyota were safe and sound or as much as they could be considering. Nyota was still unconscious after fighting her way out of the compound and killing at least 12 people. It seems she'd had the good sense to not kill the one person that might be able to tell Jim where David was. (Although, it is possible that she had tried to kill him, but he is special like Chris is now which may not be a good thing.)

"Personally, I wish Nyota had killed you like your comrades whose blood is currently splattered all over the compound floors. Those grenades were so much less civilized than the phasers." Jim said as soon as Eric started to regain consciousness. They were currently at the hospital in the capital city with Eric chained to a gurney and two security guards posted outside, with projectile weapons. Jim wasn't taking any chances.

"Personally, I'm tempted to do it right now." Jim clutched his weapon as he stroked it lovingly with a smile on his face. "But I'm much too civilized for that."

"I'm not telling you anything. It's not your kid. You're just fucking his Vulcan whore of a dad. That doesn't give you any right. He is with his real family now and safe from people like you." Wow, this guy was a moron. If you discount Spock's side of the family, David only had one biological relative left and he was a crazy xenophobic war monger, who completely fucked over his only daughter. The guy just told him who had David.

"Who were you trying to protect David from? His lesbian moms who you murdered or his gay dads that want to tear you apart for taking their child away from them?" Jim kept talking because maybe he could get more information out of the dick. "If you think I'm bad, daddy dearest wants to rip you to pieces. Did you hear about the Cupcake incident?" If Spock knew what this guy did, Eric would be nothing but blood splatters on the pristine white sheets beneath him.

"Yes, I'm sure a guy who arranged for you to murder his own daughter is the paradigm of virtue that you claim him to be and a much better parental figure for an innocent baby."

"Still better than being raised by filthy #!%$," Jim wasn't surprised at all by his use of homophobic slurs. Bigotry was bigotry.

"I'd rather be a #!%$, then a rapist. I saw the security footage. Again, it took great restraint for her not to make you a puddle of blood on the floor. Although, I'm betting you just got lucky because you have some of that miracle drug in your system. I wonder if we can find out how much it takes to kill you." Jim smirked.

"You have all the best ideas." Gaila walked into the room and took the seat beside him. The only thing in her hand was a PADD. "Besides a quick shot to the head is too good for someone like you." Gaila said menacingly as she pushed him back onto the bed forcefully.

"Did I mention that I'm actually good cop in this scenario. Agent Gaila is the bad cop. She knows 98 different ways to kill someone." Jim said with a smile.

"Actually, I'm up to a hundred and six. I picked up a few more while I was working on the Vulcan Council of all places. Did you know there are seven ways to kill someone with a stylus?" Gaila said twirling the device in question in her hand. "At least four of them involve extreme blood loss." Now that statement cause the guy to sweat just a little.

"It wasn't like that." Eric said defensively.

"So you didn't have your hands on her breast while she was restrained against her will?" Gaila asked angrily, but their prisoner did not say a word. "See, I know what you did because I've been there. I was eight the first time it happened." At that moment, the stylus in her hand snapped in two. She dropped the pieces to the floor. "I hate when that happens. Human stuff is so fragile." Gaila smirked just a little. Actually smirked may be the wrong word for it. Maybe a villain in training smile would be a more accurate description. "Just like humans themselves - even those with a little something extra."

"This is why I love being married to a Vulcan. He doesn't bruise that easily." Jim said with a vicious smile.

"Although, you on the other hand…" She said pointing to one of the bruises he received that morning or was it yesterday from fighting Marcus's goons.

"They're just love taps. However, you will not be so lucky. The only way you're not going end up dead is if you tell me where my stepson is?" Jim threatened.

"So you're trying to be a good stepdad. Better than yours? Frank said you enjoyed being hit almost as much is your mother did. Well, until he killed her, but that's not true anymore. Sometimes stuff doesn't take, just like with me." The man said eerily.

"You spoke to Frank?" That's when Agent 13 walked into the room. Did Jim mentioned she was watching this entire interrogation via video feed? Gaila set things up this time because she's considerably more competent than the team they'd brought. Seriously, it does not take that long to hack into a security feed no matter how much encryption they have. Idiots! Complete idiots!

Right now Agent 13 looked dangerously unhappy. Actually, she had that same look in her eyes that Spock got whenever certain now dead someone called his mom a synonym for prostitute.

"And this is insane cop. You just hit one of her berserker buttons." Jim smirked.

"Winona's new wife. Frank, says enjoy his leftovers." Eric retorted and surprisingly Agent 13 did not react at all.

"I'm not insane cop." 13 retorted. "You know that would be your husband. "I'm pissed off cop. So you know who I am, but how do you know Frank?"

"I don't have to answer that question."

"No, you don't. Actually, you don't have to answer any questions. This is why it was taking the communications team so long to set up the cameras. Dr. Jackson left us an Easter egg."

That's when Agent 13 turned on the video screen in the room to show the feed of Alexander Marcus walking down an unknown hallway with a squirming David in his arms. Actually, the almost 3-year-old was kicking and punching as hard as he could. Behind him an irritated Jane Jackson being held at phaser point. Jim was now completely willing to forgive the communications team since they found were David is. It had the looks of a Starfleet facility. They all have similar architecture. Lots of white everywhere.

"We already know where your boss is. There is an entire starship filled with angry officers and one pissed off dad waiting for him at a certain minimally used Starbase/ secret project construction site near Jupiter. So giving up information on David's whereabouts can't save you now. Nobody's been tried for treason for a long time. I wonder if capital punishment will still be allowed." 13 quickly ended the video stream.

"Let's go. He is not worth our time." Jim follows behind her realizing that she was playing some weird game.

"Did you wonder where all those old guns came from?" 13 turned around at that.

"My wife's asshole ex-husband. I already know that too." Agent 13 retorted.

"But you can't prove it, I can. And I will for a price."

"When I get my step grandson back, maybe I will feel like negotiating." 13 turned right back to the door and walked out.

"Gaila, do you have this."

"Sure, I forgot to take my pheromone suppressor this morning because of everything. It's best I stay here. It's not like he can do anything chained to the bed like that." The smile on Gaila's face was simply terrifying.

Spock watched the video feed of David fighting with his grandfather as he waited calmly at Acting Captain Sulu's side. As he fought to contain rage that filled him, he acknowledged that the correct decision had been made not to have him be in charge right now. He is compromised. It would be better if James was here, but the knowledge that Nyota was alive, if unconscious, helped him cope with his husband's absence. They have taken the logical course.

The Enterprise was now hovering above the engineering outpost in orbit of the Jovian moon Io. Data shows this is where the construction of the soon to be renamed USS Gandhi took place as well as Alexander Marcus's other special projects. It is the location of a secure facility where the augments found on NCX17 are being kept. And it is also the facility where his son is now. They discovered this thanks to the distress signals they received from Dr. Jackson.

He wants to beam down to the facility below and get his child. He wants to go down to avenge Carol's death. To make up for the fact that he never questioned her story. To make up for the fact that he questioned her feelings for him, but never her motives for the way she behaved. He wanted to tear Alexander Marcus apart by channeling the viciousness of his pre-reform ancestors. A certain voice inside his head was encouraging all of these ideas. Yet, he stayed beside his Acting Captain.

If he acted so brashly, David may not survive. This was a situation for logic and logic dictated that they be strategic in the extraction of David and Dr. Jackson, who was also being held hostage at phaser point.

Mr. Chekov suggested beaming David up but that was not an option for two reasons. The first is that the base's shields are up. Enterprise is working to deactivate the shields in the medical center remotely. By his estimate, it will be at least 4.6 minutes before the shields are down. The second is that Marcus has a hold of David. Even if they were able to lock on to his son, they cannot extract him without bringing Alexander Marcus and his team aboard. Therefore his only option was to watch.

"Why are you doing this? You never loved your daughter. Why would you even want her son?" Dr. Jackson asked as a weapon of unknown origin was pushed in her back again. According to the schematics they had, the party was standing outside of the medical wing inside the facility. There were the bodies of at least two guards crumbled around their feet.

"I did love my daughter." Marcus pulled David closer to himself, but the toddler kept pushing away. Internally, Spock was commending his son.

"Only when it was convenient for you. Only when she acted the way you want her to. You loved your docile little puppet, not her." Dr. Jackson spat out despite the weapons trained on her. "She made a deal with the devil to keep her son away from you, a sociopathic asshole."

"You were married to that devil." Marcus shot back pointing to the obvious wedding ring on her finger. Spock is surprised that the jewelry was not removed as it could be used as a weapon.

"I fell in love with the person I wanted him to be rather than the person he really was." Dr. Jackson defended herself.

"But then again I shouldn't be surprised. You have a notorious history of sleeping with men of great infamy and questionable morality, some of whom you call brother. It must've been very hard for you to turn on your- other John."

"Did he just imply that she…" Lieutenant Madison, Nyota's mostly competent replacement, asked from her station behind him.

"Had sexual relations with her brother? I believe so." Spock commented.

"We've already played enough games. I know I'm who you want. You need me to produce AH325 and create your army of super soldiers. You also want 'John Harrison', your design expert, back despite the fact that he almost killed your daughter. Maybe you're hoping the memory wipe will last longer this time. On the other hand, you may think him almost killing Carol was a good thing."

"I'm not happy about her death. It was an unnecessary complication." Alexander Marcus commented coldly onscreen.

"This guy is crazy." Spock heard the Acting Captain mumbled to himself.

"I will give you what you want if you let me give David to his father." It almost felt like the scientist was pleading.

"Do you think I'm going to give my grandson to a man who screwed a 15-year-old?" As Marcus' words registered, several crewmembers turned to look at Spock.

"Who didn't know she was 15 and who comes from a culture where the age of consent is significantly lower due to biological reasons? And of course you're going to ignore the underlying circumstances which led to her relationship with Spock. You're an asshole." She spat out bitterly. "You tried to force her to have an abortion. You never gave a fuck about David."

"But you do. Eric told me that you love David very much." That's when the weapon change trajectory towards David.

"Definitely crazy and a bastard. I want those shields down now." Acting Captain Sulu commanded the crew.

"You win. What do you want me to do?" There was no sound of defeat in her voice which made Spock believe the scientist was planning something.

"Provide access to your lover's, I mean, brother's room."

"Definitely implying incest." Spock shot the communication officer a dark expression. The chatter was unnecessary.

"We're not that closely related. And do you seriously think my codes are still going to work right now? They know you have me and know you will use me to get access to Starfleet secrets." The doctor pointed out almost wistfully.

"Let's see." He guides Dr. Jackson's hand to the biometric reader. The door opens and the team goes inside the room containing one unconscious man strapped to a bed. He looked similar to the protagonist in Jim's favorite version of Sherlock Holmes.

"Their shields are down, Sir." Spock hears an officer say in the background. "We have about 90 seconds before they realize what we've done."

"I have no trouble whatsoever beaming that bastard up to a room full of security staff members," Sulu suggested. Spock knew if his child could pull away from his grandfather and stay out of reach long enough they could safely beam David out alone.

'Okay, Daddy.' This time the voice in his head sounded more like David than Marshall. Seconds later David bit his grandfather providing him with enough of an opportunity to escape.

"Did David just…" Lieutenant Madison started to say but was cut off.

"Get him out now." Acting Captain Sulu's shouts as Dr. Jackson began to attack the security team to keep them away from David.

"Locked onto David." Chekov responds. Spock watched the screen as David disappeared much to the surprise of his irate grandfather, who ineffectually reached toward the spot where the child had been. Moments later the boy materialized next to Spock.

Spock was only dimly aware of anything else after that. He vaguely heard Dr. Jackson say, "You were smart using David as a bargaining chip because he was the only thing keeping you alive. Too bad for you Starfleet got my message."

He barely registered Dr. McCoy and Dr. Margarita Cruz arriving on the bridge to assess his son's health. Spock was completely focused on the 2 ½-year-old who was now safely in his arms. He did not care that others were watching. A few tears flowed freely as he kissed David on the forehead. He could feel his son's fear and relief. He was just happy to have his son back. So much so that he barely noticed when the location where David had been held just minutes earlier exploded.

To be continued.