AN: I am terribly sorry for the wait, but it will be worth it. To you brave souls willing to venture onward to the inevitable, I thank you for staying with me. Also a big thank you to those of you who still read after the last 3 chapters. We're in this together, my friends.

Also, to describe what comes next, I will be borrowing some description from To Reign in Hell, but I will add my own words to it. As always: Star Trek and all related properties belong to their owners. I own nothing.

The first two years on Ceti Alpha V had their moments of sadness and strife. Aside from those lost before the great wedding, there were two more lives lost among the remaining colonists. Both had been excavators for the tunnels that ran through the great mountain- its substance finally identified as limestone- and under their lands. The men had returned from the excursions with blank-eyed stares and obeying every word said to them, sometimes near-literally. (An off-hand comment to just go take a dive in to the river nearly ended in one of the men's self-drowning). Their behavior, especially when they began to experience painful seizures and screams of madness, was confirmed to be caused by the eel-like parasites that had been seen before.

When the men finally died, their bodies were quickly taken for autopsy, observed by Khan, and performed by Liam and Gideon. They discovered how the eels entered the brain and what happened when they were inside. Discovering one still wrapped around the cerebral cortex of one of the victims, the other crawling from the second corpse's ear drum. Both eels were killed immediately.

"It seems that when the will to survive or fight isn't strong enough," Liam had explained later, "Then the host can't fight off the parasite. It makes its home around the cortex and that is how it is able to secrete the neurotoxin. This makes the host docile enough to let the larvae grow until they mature."

The news that some of his people were not strong enough to fight the parasitic beetle larvae did upset Khan, but he merely commanded, "Be more careful in the caves, then, and make certain to kill any larva or adult beetles that you come across."

The moments of sadness and were greatly outnumbered with times of joy and progression for their civilization

With diligence they managed to avoid further casualties during the preparation of the caves, and by the middle of the first year of the colony's existence, they had a hide-away from the monsoons. They moved the stasis tubes, their containers for food to keep stored away, in to the deeper rock tunnels, and even managed to build and pick openings nearer the great limestone and mineral mountains to be able to enter the underground network quickly. The less stable tunnels, surrounded only by earth and dirt, were fortified with the metals from the shuttles.

Only three vessels remained untouched, after the others had been pulled and picked apart for their various metals, wires, and other parts. Anything from those escape shuttles was re-formed and re-used. No one lived in them anymore, save Gideon who still used the clean and well-kept space of his own for a hospital. All other colonists had long since moved in to sod houses.

The new forge meant that they could smelt the metals they salvaged, as well as the various minerals that they discovered in the earth. They were able to make proper axes, picks, chisels, hammers, nails, blades. The production of books increased and Marla watched as Khan took on a personal project (a daunting feat, really, in between his duties of being supreme ruler) to write from memory his favorite novels.

"Works like those of Milton and Melville should not be forgotten, even here," he had told his queen when she inquired about his new hobby.

A second mass wedding was held for the newer couples, and the births of the many children of the Augments had brought so much cheer and greater happiness than any of the citizens of New Chandigarh had felt in many years.

This was especially true in Marla's case.

The birth of Marla's son had been a hard and difficult affair, even in regards to how births usually progressed. The woman had blacked out twice, even with the numbing ointments and other anesthetics they had on hand (including a natural one discovered from applying the pulp of an orange-flowered plant recovered from the deep jungle) and she had had to hold on constantly to Khan's hand while she went through the pain during her lucid moments.

But after she had awoken, though she did have a suture on her stomach, and her whole body ached, she also had a son, and a smiling, proud Emperor waiting for her.

Her first words after the birth were, "Let me see him."

Khan, who cradled the tiny child in his arms, carefully passed the infant to her. Marla looked down in to the still scrunched face of the baby. He was tiny, with all of his fingers and toes, his skin soft and tiny mouth mumbling the soft gurgling language of newborns. She had worried if she would not survive this endeavor. She had often feared that she would somehow lose her baby before he could come to term. But he was there, and he was beautiful.

The fine hairs already on his head were wisps of strawberry-blonde.

"His eyes have not opened," Khan said, "But his hair is already different from the others."

"I know," Marla replied. Every child that had been born before the prince, children of pure-Augments, had all been born with pale Caucasian skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. It was considered a strange and very poor side-effect from the genetic tampering. In spite of these discrepancies, though, each child did carry facial characteristic from their parents, though it would be some time before any other similarities to their parents would be evident.

The fact that Marla's son, with a hint of the red-hair of her own ancestry, was different could very well prove to be something good. A different gene-pool for their growing kingdom.

"Hello, my little miracle," Marla whispered to the infant in her arms. She kissed his forehead, and then smoothed her thumb gently over the back of the baby's head. "Prince Joaquin."

"A strong name for a strong prince," Khan said with approval. He sat beside Marla in their bed of pelts, and he stroked one finger over his son's rose-colored cheek. "Prince Joaquin Ajit Singh."

"Ajit?" Marla asked.

"'Invincible'," Khan clarified. "The invincible lion, established by God."

"Now that is a strong name," Marla said with a soft giggle.

"He can bear it." Khan kissed his wife, joining her as she rested with their child.

The prince's first year of life went by so quickly, it spun Marla's head. He played with Suzette's son, Ethan Joaquim Weiss, in the house built from sod, and Marla loved both children with all of her heart. She made sure, when she was left in the settlement while Khan and others hunted, that both infants were watched carefully, and when Suzette had to accompany Khan, she was often seen carrying both boys in her arms.

She would never have another child of her own, again, but she didn't worry about that fact any more. With a healthy and darling son to raise and her best friend's child to help care for, Marla didn't feel as if she was being deprived at all. They were perfect, and that was enough.

And of course, for Khan and Marla, there was still passion. After she had recovered from her delicate surgeries, and in between the daily care of both the colony and their child, there were stolen kisses, brief but heated brushes of skin. When the young prince did sleep in his wooden crib, the Emperor and his bride had silent moments of desire that they indulged in. Marla could never get enough of her husband, and even with her scars, he could never stop wanting her.

With such happiness, how could anything different be expected for all the days to come?

She sat with her son, the boy just going on to fifteen months old, and already showing that he had inherited his father's height. She brushed at his fine, pale curls, and looked up from where they sat outside of their little house. She looked up at the stars, while Khan, utilizing the glow of the large fire-pit and torches perched around the camp, wrote down furiously in a leather-bound book.

"Up there in the sky," Marla said to the little prince, "Are many, many other races of people Some are peaceful. Some aren't."

"All inferior," Khan murmured. She shushed him, but smiled.

"There are so many planets," Marla said to the baby, "And suns and moons. We came from a place far away, and now this planet is all your own. But someday I'll tell you about all of the others, my love."

"You should take him to bed," Khan observed, though he didn't take his eyes from the pages he wrote on.

"I am." She stood, and glanced once more at the night's sky. A flicker just in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned her eyes to the bright orange orb of Ceti Alpha VI.

Its outer rim flared brighter than ever, slowly causing the darkness to retreat.

"Khan," Marla said, feeling the panic that was plain in her voice. "Khan, look up! Now!"

He lifted his own head up and stood. The book in his lap fell to the ground and he took quick steps to Marla's side. They watched together as their planet's sister emitted a light so bright that soon, the night seemed to have transformed into day. The planet's crust came apart, exposing the red volcanic mantle and bright white core. Within seconds that very core ignited, becoming a starburst that expanded out in every direction.

Neither spoke as the phenomenon occurred, but as the light died, Marla asked, "Khan, what does this mean?" Ceti Alpha VI was only twenty-one million kilometers away.

"This…bodes ill," Khan said softly. Dread was etched on his strong features.

As the light above began to fade, the world around them was filled with the sounds of the local animals, birds, mammals, and many others, crying out in howls, roars, and squeals of panic and fear. Marla held little Joaquin tightly to her chest as he added his own wailing to the noise. The sudden sounds caused the men and women of the settlement to begin pouring from their homes, other mothers clutching their own children protectively.

The shrill screams of infants and animals was joined with a deep, thunderous rumbling, like the churning of turbines, until the earth-born sound drowned out all else. The ground beneath then shook, quivered, and as they looked down they saw the cracking begin.

"Not again," Khan breathed. Marla briefly recalled the day he told her about earthquake that had wracked central India in 1993. He had been young and nearly died in the rubble.

He grabbed her by the waist. "RUN!" he yelled at her, managing to make it far from the building that had been their home before the sod structure crumbled and collapsed in on itself.

They had trouble keeping to their feet, and it was not only Marla and Khan, but the other colonists. As men and women ran in the pandemonium, they tripped, stumbled, and attempted to grab others racing by for help. As they ran through the settlement, Marla heard a woman shriek, and turned to see Harluf grab for his wife, Karyn, as she fell back against one of the torches, and her clothes caught fire.

"Khan!" Marla yelled, but he pulled her on.

"I want you and Joaquin safe!" he called to her over the deafening rumble.

"My Lord! My Lady!" Suzette appeared, clinging little Ethan to her side. They were soon joined by Gideon, Liam, Zuleika, and their families.

"Begin herding all the people to the caves," Khan said.

"What if the quake makes them collapse?" Suzette asked.

"The limestone will hold better," Liam told them, "But only in the larger caverns!"

"We've no other options, then!" Khan urged Marla toward Mrs. Hawkins and Mrs. McPherson, and said, "Go with them! Guide all of the other women and children to the tunnels."

"Come back to me," Marla cried as she reached one hand out to grab his shoulder, not only for emphasis, but to help her stay on her feet as the earth shook harder beneath them.

"I always will," he promised her before letting go. Marla turned to Suzette.

"Give me Ethan," she ordered the other woman. "I'll keep him safe. Follow Khan!"

Suzette didn't hesitate. She handed her son to the Empress and ran after their Leader.

She turned around, taking a few steps before the ground broke open, and a fissure opened like a ravenous jaw before them. Around them they all saw as cracks and openings appeared and other homes broke apart, like so much dust and dirt. Men, women with children, vanished in each new opening.

Marla looked for a clear path to the rocky mountains that held their protection. "This way!" she finally shouted and ran between each falling house and the growing crevasses, through the violently growing shocks that toppled everything they had worked so hard to make.

As they ran, others joined them. Families, women who carried more than one child at the behest of others, newly pregnant mothers, people limping in pain. Soon, the stars were blotted from the sky and all they had were the torches some managed to grab and carry.

Then the northern sky began to blaze.

The mountains far to the north erupted in to live and furious volcanoes, sending orange and red fire up in the horizon. Marla hoped that they were far enough away from the blazing mountain range to avoid the rain of fire that would come, and the molten avalanches. She also prayed that the closer limestone tunnels wouldn't fill with magma.

As they drew closer, however, they saw that the openings deep underground had already caved in. But an opening, broken apart and made by their excavators, remained clear above.

"Climb!" Marla urged them. "Climb now!" As they began, though, behind her, Pavarti screamed.

"Watch out!" The Indian Augment woman yanked Marla, and the two infants in her arms, away, and was thrown down and crushed beneath a loosened boulder.

"NO! PAVARTI!" Marla wailed. Pavarti's husband attempted to lift the rock from his spouse, handing his child to another couple, only for more rubble to come. The couple ran, and Rodriguez was covered in the rocks, as well.

"This isn't happening," Marla whispered. Another tremor had her pressing herself and the children in her arms against the rock face as more rubble tumbled down. Zuleika had managed to climb up beside her.

"We need to wait until it stops!" the Amazonian guard cried.

"We need to get inside!" Marla countered. She turned and yelled, "Talbot! Climb up!" The man was lithe and quick, and an expert mountaineer, she recalled, among other talents. He climbed up swiftly to the opening. Then pressed against the inner wall as the others below clung to the mountain-side and allowed more debris to fall.

"Hand him up the children! Help the pregnant women up!" Marla ordered those nearest and they began to hand up each screaming child, and the expectant mothers. They stopped only when the danger of crumbling rock appeared. When the more fragile and important of their people were safe, they began guiding the women up. Marla herself refused to enter until Zuleika was pushing her upward.

"Our Lord won't forgive us if you die," the taller Augment woman said as Marla's hand was taken by Talbot and Daniel Katzel, and pulled up in to the opening.

She turned in to look in the cave and called, "Where's my son, Joaquin? Ethan Weiss?"

"Here, My Lady!" Rose, Liam's wife, answered, with three children on her lap and in her arms.

Marla ran over to them and took the two children in her care up again. "Thank you."

"It's our Lord!" Daniel shouted. Marla ran back to the opening to see Khan running toward the limestone mountain. She saw Suzette, Gideon, and the Ericssons. Karyn was burned and Marla felt a deep pang of guilt. Others who were injured- men, women, even two children that she saw- were being led up and handed to the waiting hands of the people in the caves.

But some were missing. Liam? Where was Liam?

Khan was the last to enter, once he was certain that all of his people were inside. Suzette took Ethan from Marla as the Empress asked, "Where is Liam?"

"…Gone," Khan said, panting heavily. "The earth swallowed him." He wrapped his arms around Marla, and led her deeper in to the caves. "Away from the opening! In to the tunnels! Quickly!"

The lower sections of the tunnels, the more easily accessible ones that had crumbled already, had held some of their tools and their unused torches, but deep within the heart of the mountain, their supplies of food, tools, weapons, firewood and other various supplies remained. They kept enough for three months stowed, in preparation for the monsoon seasons.

But for a catastrophe such as this? No one could prepare for this.

They stopped only when the mountain around them shook. At times, they feared the rocks that surrounded them would crumble apart, but by some grand providence, they held, and the remnant of New Chandigarh was able to make it in to the heart of their sanctuary.

Once in the depths of the mountain, their casualties were assessed.

The total of dead was already apparent. While the exact number could not yet be determined, they saw that many children, though saved, were now in the arms of couples who hadn't birthed them. A man cradled a weeping child, as did a handful of women, including Rose MacPherson, who cried with her daughter, Ivy. Marla walked over to the couple that had taken hold of Padma Rodriguez, Pavarti's daughter.

"I can take her," Marla told them, and they handed the little girl to their Empress.

There were just as many injured. Some as light as sprains, which would heal soon, but others suffered from third degree burns from falling in to torches. Marla walked up to the Ericssons. Harluf held his daughter, Astrid, while Gideon wrapped salve coated bandages around Karyn's arms.

"You saw her fall, and you ran," Harluf snarled at her. She stepped back. Khan was immediately at Marla's side.

"I had my own wife and child to see to," Khan told the Norseman sternly. "I came back for you. Would you prefer it if I had not?"

Harluf said no more, but his own pale eyes were full of anger toward the Rulers. Marla shuddered and held the infants she had a little tighter.

Hours passed, interrupted only by death-throws of the planet echoing in their caverns. Much later, in a time she couldn't determine in the torch-lit tunnels, Marla leaned against a storage box beside her husband. She had little Joaquin on her lap, the boy's body nestled to her stomach. Khan held tiny Padma.

"They were loyal and admirable," he said to Marla, of the baby girl's parents. "I am sorry that you had to watch them die."

"…I'm sorry that we lost Liam, too," Marla said, feeling the pain growing in her chest. So many of their friends, their loyal and loved family, gone. "He was one of the first people to be my friend, here."

"His insight would have been useful," Khan whispered. Marla looked toward her husband, and saw in his eyes the full weight of his near three-hundred years of life. She reached a hand out and ran her fingers up behind his neck.

"All of our hard work," he said. "Two years of struggle and survival… swept away in a matter of minutes." He turned to look in her eyes. "I could do nothing…"

"This isn't your fault," she told him. She leaned in close to him, her other hand keeping little Joaquin supported. "This was like… Krakatoa, or Pompeii. No one can predict it or take account of it."

His jaw tightened, and she saw the muscles in his neck grow taught.

"Starfleet would," he ground out through his teeth.

Marla sighed. The last remaining symbol of her past, the Lieutenant's silver insignia, hung around her neck on a leather cord. She had refused to let it be thrown away with her old uniform, even now that she wore no other piece of clothing from Earth.

"Khan," she started.

"NO," he snapped at her, glaring at his wife. She saw his eyes taking on the first smoldering of blue fire. "I knew then, and it is confirmed now, by this cataclysm. They never intended for me or my people to live. They martyred your ship for our deaths- and sent us to a doomed planet as a fail-safe against our survival." She could see the vein in the center of his forehead beginning to pulse under his skin.

Marla moved closer to him. She took Padma and settled both babies carefully. "If it weren't for them, I would never have met you," she told him, her voice soft. "They placed me on the Eden, and because of that, I found the one person in the entire universe who could ever make me happy." She set her dark red-haired head on his shoulder. "And because they set us together, we have our son. In spite of all their fear and hatred, you've survived. Even now."

He was silent, and she felt his body slackening against hers. Finally his hand rose up and went around her shoulders.

"I could only do so much because of you," he said as he leant his cheek against her head. "I survive because of you."

"Together we can do anything," she told him. "You and I. And our People."

Oh, the pain of their loss, of having seen so many die was still in their hearts, but they took comfort in that fact. She knew it deep within her bones. She, Khan, and their people could persevere if they held strong and worked together, as they had the past two years.

In the face of the cruelty of fate, they would move on.

AN: I would have more, but such a heavy chapter requires some time to get our bearings. Sorry for the lateness of this arrival, folks. With only four chapters left, while I am itching to write them, I also don't want the story to be over too soon. Again, thanks to those willing to move on with me toward the future, whatever it may bring!