AN: The end is drawing closer my friends…

As always, I own nothing. Some situations and description from To Reign In Hell may be borrowed or called upon here. Star Trek is not mine, neither are the quotes (indirect and direct alike) from Paradise Lost, which is John Milton's work.

Enjoy


Khan's POV

With heavy steps, feeling the weariness of the last two months seated upon his back like a yoke, he approached the stone mountains that hid the rest of his people from the sun's unrelenting glare. In the time since he had first set out for the sea, the black clouds that had once covered the land had dissipated, and the earth had begun to lose every semblance of greenery and plant life, withering in the intensified heat of the sun. Ceti Alpha V was turning in to a wasteland. And he had searched it many times hoping to bring his people out of the misery that had befallen them.

Instead he had only found confirmation of their damnation here.

What had begun as a party of five now saw only three members coming home from the search for the sea. Suzette Ling, ever enduring and ever loyal, had managed to survive their journey. Harluf Ericsson, to his displeasure, had also managed to come home with them. Debora and Talbot had been claimed by the horrors and new dangers that waited in the world.

They climbed up, slowly, weakly to the nearest opening in the limestone, even as Khan heard the guards at the opening call out through the tunnels.

"Our Lord has returned!"

He sighed behind his obsidian visor and pulled his body up in to the mouth of the cave, assisted by one of the guards. Daniel, ever true in his devotion to the Emperor, clasped his wrist and pulled him in to the mouth of the caves.

"Welcome back, My Lord," said the younger man. As he helped Suzette and Harluf climb up, Khan began to remove the heavy cloth covering his head (called a kaffiyeh), and lifted the volcanic rock from his face.

"Where is the Empress?" he asked Daniel.

"I sent Tory to find her," the other man answered.

Khan straightened his back. He needed to keep his composure. He needed his people to see him strong, still.

The sounds of footsteps echoed from deep within the tunnels, and soon he heard the familiar gait of his bride as she ran to meet him, long before he saw her familiar silhouette. Time in the darkness had begun to dull the auburn tresses again, but the fire that lay inside of her still shone through in her face, and as she became clear in the light outside that filtered through the opening, Khan felt his heart, burdened and heavy these past months, lift again.

My beacon of light in the darkness. The last true haven of anything good that this world can give to me.

Marla was followed by Zuleika, and Harluf's wife, Karyn. The Empress nearly leapt upon Khan as he opened his arms to take her in to his embrace. Her arms went over his wide shoulders and wrapped around him tightly. He could feel her body thrumming against him as she breathed heavily from her sprint up to meet him. He closed his eyes and let her cling to him as he held her possessively up against his body.

"Oh God, I missed you," she breathed heavily in to his ear. He pressed his lips against her temple. Inhaled, taking in her scent.

His eyes opened and he saw Zuleika standing back, looking bereft, and woeful. Perhaps there was resentment, too? She looked at him, and asked, her voice tight, "Where is my husband, my Lord?"

Khan loosened his hold on Marla, and he stepped aside from her. He had dreaded this the moment Talbot had vanished in to the heavy, blinding clouds of sand, but he had to say it. He grieved for the woman, and her loss, as well as the loss of a loyal follower.

"I… am deeply, and truly sorry, Zuleika, but he is gone," he told her. The tall, former model and cold-hearted assassin stepped back, and he watched her break down. This woman had shed blood (even the blood of men she had seduced at Khan's own behest, for his own political gains) and she had fought beside him as a strong and unrelenting soldier. She had seen many comrades die in the line of fire, and merely stepped over them to fight on. Now she was crumbling before his eyes in grief.

In this instance, it was only natural, and he understood her pain.

Marla, ever compassionate, walked over to the Augment woman, and placed her hand on Zuleika's shoulder. The taller woman flinched and attempted to hide her face as she left them all, going back in to the tunnels. As Marla stepped to follow, Khan caught hold of his wife's arm.

"Not yet. Her pain is fresh. Let her grieve as she needs to," he said.

She turned her head. "But she's my friend," Marla countered. "I can't leave her alone!" He saw tears welling in her brown eyes.

Always thinking of others before yourself, he thought. My selfless and empathetic queen.

Suzette weaved around them. "I'll talk to her. She's my Secondary Detail leader, after all." As Suzette disappeared in to the shadows of the tunnels, Khan pulled Marla to him. Harluf and Karyn stepped up behind them.

Khan didn't look back. Harluf had been taken along in the beginning to keep the man from causing any unrest within the remaining colonists here. He did admit to himself that a part of him wanted the man to be killed by the harsh conditions in the world outside, but that had not happened. Far more noble and good people had been lost, instead, and it galled at Khan to know that this man had come back with him out of the wastes.

Khan said quietly to Marla, "I want to see the children. Take me to them." She nodded and led him, breaking away after many twists and turns in labyrinthine stone corridors that were lit with the very last of the wood recovered long ago. They had to be careful of the use of such items. Perhaps in time they could find other sources for light, and thus not waste their electricity from the salvaged shuttle engines.

Past the curved opening to their dwelling, they entered the first of two alcoves. One Khan had used for a personal 'study' of sorts, where, before he had left, he would continue cataloguing the rations and daily rotations for guards and listed the births and deaths of Fatalis's citizens. The other was, for now, a familial bedroom. Furs and blankets lined the floor and it was swept and checked hourly for any Eels that might have crept in. Here, with the guard Tory watching over them, waited the three babes that Marla had been watching over since Khan had set out on his fruitless quest.

They dismissed the guard, and Marla knelt beside the children. Ethan, Suzette's son, had little of his mother's Asian structure in either face or frame (though at barely two years in age, this could change. Khan doubted this, of course). No, the boy already held resemblance to his father, in spite of the pale skin and hair that his people's offspring carried. Ethan grabbed a hand up to Marla, and she returned his small, seeking fingers with her own hand, and gently hooked two fingers in to the child's hold.

Padma Rodriguez, with her mother's full mouth and her father's wide eyes, looked up at Khan and she let out a soft squeal. Marla turned to the girl and picked her up.

"Yes," she said to the cheerfully squealing baby. "He's back."

"Dada!" the voice that called out caused Khan's chest to ache, though this pain he could bear. He bent down and picked up his son, Joaquin Ajit, and kissed his snow-white forehead. He ran his gloved hand over his son's back, and let the little boy continue his litany of infant babble and high-pitched giggles.

"I missed you, as well, my son," he whispered warmly to little Joaquin, as the baby reached to take hold of Khan's dark hair. It hung loose and uncovered, now, and the child's grasp was not too firm, yet, but already far stronger than the average toddler's.

Khan still marveled at the miracle of his own child. This boy, born though every statistic he had ever known said it was improbable, and with half of his DNA coded from a woman lacking genetic enhancement and alteration, had come in to this world alive, healthy, and strong. He thought, perhaps, that the fact that Marla's genetics were not augmented was the reason why, though it was still far paler, Joaquin's hair still held shades of red among the golden-wheat strands. Khan also saw more of the boy's mother's features than his own. No strong nose, no harsh angles, and no sharpness to his cheekbones under the baby-fat. Though the boy would be tall, someday, in every other facet, he suspected that Joaquin would very much be his mother's son.

That may be more fitting, he thought as he moved his hand up to pet over Joaquin's hair. A Superior heir, with my strength and his mother's heart. His people will adore him as much as they will respect him.

Khan looked down at Marla, and he asked, "Are the plants growing well?"

"Yes," she answered, eyes still on Padma, who now rested in Marla's lap, while Ethan reached up to tug at Marla's hair. "And there's still water left, but the river's drying up more and more, every day."

"…In the west it is already barren," he told her.

Her eyes turned up to him, then. "What about the ocean? Is it gone too?"

Suzette's return interrupted his answer. He was no coward, but Khan did not want to discuss what he had seen yet. He wanted some comfort before he was forced back in to the harsh reality around them.

A modicum of hope and peace is all I ask for.

When Suzette and her son left them, and long after, when Padma and Joaquin lay in quiet slumber, Marla stood to retrieve one of Khan's books from his study. She handed it to him.

"I know you usually write them down, but I did it while you were gone," she told him as he looked at the book. This one entailed the population, losses and additions. He sighed and opened the book up to the last place he had marked, and saw Marla's own writing inside of it. Using small twigs (not good enough for kindling) and the ground shells of grown Ceti Beetles for ink, there were new names, and dates, added to those who had died.

"Most are from Eel attacks. Khan, we tried to tell them that if they fought, it'd work, but…" Her voice trailed off.

He said nothing as he closed the book and returned it to the stacks of others.

"They were tired," she rationalized. "And… Khan, it's harder for some to believe that it'll get better. And we've lost so many. I can see why some of them couldn't see the point in fighting. But-"

"There is no refuge in the sea," he confessed. He brought his unscarred hand up and covered his eyes with it. Dipped his head down.

"What?" she asked.

"After we had crossed through the wastes, we found the ocean, and thought that we had found our salvation," he told her. He dropped his hand, and then leaned against the stone wall. "But I saw no life in the water. No sign of fish or other aquatic creatures, no algae growing on the rocks. No salt deposits- Nothing!" he snarled the last word, and he felt his shoulders drop. Allowed his back to bow. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes.

"Debora had begun to despair… When she saw the water, she was so overjoyed… She dove head-first in to it and… Instantly cried out in pain." He could still see it. The horrific image of a once powerful, intelligent, and beautiful sister Augment as she had died. Still heard the shrieks, and her pleas as the water around her turned red. "Her flesh melted from her bones. The sea has become pure acid."

Marla crossed to him, and pressed herself against him, holding him as she had when he had first returned. He pulled her up to him, and then slid their combined bodies to the floor. He buried his face in her hair. Then her neck.

"There is no escape. We are trapped in Hell," he ground out. Marla shook her head gently and she pulled back enough to run her hands over his face, and his hair. She kissed his brow, and then pressed her own to it.

"I'm sorry," she said to him. "I know, it's hard, and it is so hateful and so wrong." He felt her breath against his face as she spoke, and he let her continue to caress and soothe him with her gentle touch. "But I know we can survive. We've been through so much- we'll make it through this."

He looked in to her eyes, and he was suddenly seized with need. The need for her gentleness, for her sympathy, and the need for the body that he had missed desperately during his long sojourn to the useless sea.

"I will never give up," he told her as he pushed her down against the cave's floor. He took her mouth; hungrily took hold with lips and teeth, and he tugged at clothing.

"I know," she mumbled in between the demanding kisses. She pushed at him, and pulled her mouth away, turning her head. "You'll wake the-"

"We can be quiet," he said, his voice deep but hushed as he moved his mouth against her skin, and began to rearrange their garments until flesh could meet flesh and he felt her warmth envelope him. Heard her sigh and choke back a moan in to her throat.

After he had fulfilled the abrupt moment of desire, and they were properly dressed and lay in the family bed with the sleeping children, he watched Marla sleep. He marked time with only the gentle rise and fall of her chest, while she kept one arm around the children, keeping them warm and protecting them even in slumber.

This woman was still remarkable to him. She had managed to keep Fatalis in relative peace while keeping these precious little ones safe. She had made difficult decisions that he knew had tasked her, and grieved her, yet remained strong. And though he had brought home to her grave news, she still had shown him compassion and faith. Her faith, her words and thoughts, and her loyalty drew him closer to her, and made him desire to keep her at his side.

How can I live without thee? How forgo thy sweet converse and love, so dearly joined?

Thinking on Adam's words of love to Eve, as written by Milton, he realized then how alike Marla was to the first Woman, as told in the Judeo-Christian religion. A creature made to be the full and perfect help-mate to Man, who succumbed to temptations and was removed from grace and perfection.

Marla, however, had been cast from paradise not once, but twice. Though the first was her choice, the second was not, and he found that to be unacceptable. She didn't deserve to be living on this dying ball of dust and rock and heat. To have her devotion and her goodness repaid so cruelly. She should have so much more. And yet he could not bear the thought of being in this constant nightmare without her.

No, no I feel the link of nature draw me. Flesh of flesh- bone of my bone, thou art. And from thy State, mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe.

She did deserve better. So, too, did their son. He did not want his son to grow up in such a forsaken place. Did not want Joaquin to inherit this planet as his kingdom. However, as Khan had told his wife, he would not give up. This need to give them both a better life than what they had been given made him more determined to fight against the circumstances that Starfleet had flung them all in to. It fueled his determination, as well as his contempt.

You fearful, hating, scheming fools, I will not let you conquer me and mine, he vowed silently in the darkness. I shall show you that the Superior Man never bends before the cruelties of fate, no matter how hopeless the odds. Let this entire planet die a slow and miserable death. Let Starfleet forget us entirely. I will keep my family, and all of my people alive - this I swear upon my sacred honor.

We will survive.


Marla's POV

Five years, as such was counted on Ceti Alpha V, passed by since their sister planet exploded, and their own world throw in to chaos and destruction. The once green, beautiful lands and abundant rivers had dried up, leaving the surrounding landscape an arid place. Windblown gravel and sand blinded those who left the safety of the caves, whenever their people went out in search of water, coal, or the few lizards that remained crawling in the dust and dirt.

The sun, filtered a muddy brow through the sand clouds, beat down so strong and forceful that only the enhancement of their genetics kept the Augments from blistering and burning. Even through their protective coverings, they were still browned and darkened by the sun whenever they ventured out. Granite formations, eroded by time and winds and sand, came up among the shifting sand dunes.

To the far north, black snowless peaks broke the skyline. Massive saltpans covered the north-east leading to a deep gorge that had been discovered only a few months before (the Azar Gorge, named for the Persian born geologist who had discovered it while looking for coal). The gorge, a deep wound in the planet, had uncovered a hidden hot-spring and opened up geysers that spewed steam and hot, but clean water. The place was three days away (a total of six days needed for each trip to the gorge and back), but it was their nearest source of water, and the coal found in the surrounding lands gave them the fuel for their fires.

Much of what she knew of the world outside was only told to her through word-of-mouth, of course. Marla couldn't leave the caves anymore because the sun could destroy her skin- possibly burn her fatally. She was more knowledgeable of the tunnels, now, anyway. She knew their twists and turns, and which families lived where. She knew where the infirmary was, the nursery when babies were born (and some still managed to be born, even now. Life could not be stopped), and she knew where the fertilizer pit was located, and which ways to go to avoid the smell.

In the time since their colony had retreated underground, and especially as the children of the colony grew up, she had taken on many roles, aside from the Empress of Fatalis. When the first children born to the planet were able to speak full sentences (just twenty two remained, after deaths from Eels and diseases were factored in, and only twice as many adults remaining after these tragedies), she had become their Teacher.

She used the large gathering room as a school room. It was a cave that had benched carved from gathered obsidian from the volcanoes, where Khan would have meetings with the adults of Fatalis. When Khan did not use it, Marla stood at the forefront of the room and instructed the children.

The children were prodigies- geniuses like their parents- of course. They were quick to learn, and ever demanding of new subjects and fast progression in their courses. Absorbing information that would have taken four Elementary grade years to learn, they were now, at six years old (or around so, as five-year-olds and two four-year-olds had been incorporated in to the 'class') they were well in to learning long division and adding decimals, while being able to write longer, more coherent 'essays' with small charcoal pieces that were too small to burn, and the walls of the room itself. Seeing them all progress caused Marla to feel pride for the young lives in her care.

Padma, growing already in to a very good and caring girl, was always curious about reading, and she couldn't get enough of the history that Marla shared with her. Ethan was quiet, like his father had been, but he was also always eager to hear and know, though he preferred to read. Often Marla found herself asking Khan to borrow the books he had recreated, to give to Ethan to fuel his mind. Astrid Ericsson, though Marla still had reservations about the girl's father, was a rising star in regard to mathematics and puzzles. She was smart beyond her years, and could very well be someone that other children would look up to. Some already did.

Her son, Joaquin, was just as smart as his peers, and always listening and watching. He followed his father's advice every day, and took everything that Khan told him to heart, but he also was attentive to what Marla told and taught him, especially when she gave him the histories of famous kings and military leaders.

Time underground had caused Marla to change not only in her station, but physically, yet again. Her skin tone had decreased in color to a very pale shade, and her hair had darkened again. She never did cut it, but neither did she bind it, so it fell in thick red-brown waves around her shoulders and down her back. Any weight gained long ago in pregnancy had vanished, and while she was still strong from training with Suzette, she was still woefully thinner than what should be healthy.

She wasn't the only one changing. She could not account for any wrinkles or changes in her face (there were no mirrors or other reflective surfaces, after all), but she did see as her husband's appearance changed due to the passage of time, and the changed climate.

When he removed his protective layers of cloth and fur after his expeditions, his skin was darker than ever before. A deep, dark tan from head to foot, with only a few paler places that rarely were uncovered. His scars, on his hand and across his chest, were the only still visibly 'white' skin that he now bore. His hair, once the color of the black volcanic rocks, was not only graying from the stress and strain of his duties as the Emperor , but also from time. She supposed in another five or ten years, he would become a photo-negative of the man she had awoken from sleep when they had first landed. But for all the physical changes, he was still her Khan in every other way: his voice, his commanding presence, his noble and powerful spirit. He was still man who held her heart, and in whom she had complete faith.

The 'school day' had just let up, and Marla had been keeping up with the passage of days. Tomorrow Khan would be home from the gorge, and she had quite a few 'progress reports' to give to him. She always confided in her husband about what happened each day during the lessons.

As she was cleaning up the walls, rubbing off charcoal equations and words with a scrap of cloth, she heard scuffling outside. Heard the voices of the children as some said, "Get him!" and others said, "Stop!"

Oh God, not again. Marla dropped the cloth and ran from the room to see her son and Astrid pushing and grabbing for each other.

"Lady Marla!" cried Ivy McPherson, grabbing Marla's hand, "They're fighting!"

"Joaquin!" Marla yelled, moving through her pupils to her son and Harluf's daughter. "Astrid! Stop!" She grabbed both children by their shoulders and tried to pull them apart. Joaquin squirmed and writhed as he attempted to get at the girl.

"She started it!" he yelled angrily. Ethan ran up and helped hold on to the Prince, while Padma grabbed the hand of her adopted brother. This let Marla keep Astrid away from her son.

"What happened?" she asked both children. "I want you to tell me."

"She called you Inferior! She called me an 'abomination!'" Joaquin said, surging again as if to fight more. Marla sighed. Her son carried his father's anger, and that was something she hoped to help him overcome.

"Sweetheart, I-"

"It's true," Astrid said, her lower lip jut out in a pout that should have been endearing or adorable. But with the look on the girl's face, it was simply one of indignant anger. "My daddy said so."

Marla turned to the girl, and knelt to be eye-level with her.

"Astrid, sometimes people say things that they don't mean, or that they think will get them attention. That doesn't make them true," Marla explained to her.

"I'm not stupid," Astrid told her. "I know my daddy means it."

"But do you mean it?" she asked Astrid. "You're right. You're not stupid. You're a very smart girl. You need to form your own opinions, with what you see and hear." She straightened up. "Now go on home to your mother, and make sure to do your homework. I won't tell her about this fight- this time- as long as you never say things like that again."

Astrid frowned further, but she spun around on her feet and ran down through the tunnels, followed by others. When just Joaquin, Padma, and Ethan remained, she turned her attention to her son.

"And you," she said, "Need to control your temper. I can fight my own battles, sweetheart. I don't need you to fight them for me."

"Bud Daddy does. When the other grownups say it."

She bit on her lip. She hated that her son noticed that, too. How people among the colony still hated her, blamed her for their problems. Yes, she knew Astrid spoke the truth: Harluf still resented and spoke against them. But the man never went beyond words, however poisonous. She took his hand away from Padma, and Ethan let go of him, now.

"I know, but that's different. And when Daddy is gone, I have to take care of myself, or I get help from Zuleika, or Suzette. You're still too young, and you need to remember that you need to use words and reason, not fists and kicking, to solve your conflicts. Understand?"

He nodded solemnly.

"Good. I won't tell your father about this, when he comes home tomorrow," she had told him often enough about Joaquin's fights with Astrid, and Khan seemed to find nothing wrong with him standing up for himself this way. "But, you have to promise not to fight Astrid again. If you break that promise, I'm going to have to take away some of your books."

His face fell. "Really?"

"Yes," she told him. "There are consequences for breaking promises and hurting others, Joaquin."

Padma reached up for Marla's other hand. "He really didn't start it," Padma said softly.

"It doesn't matter," Marla told her. "All actions have consequences." The children all nodded- even Ethan, ever the stoic little boy- and she said, "Now come on. You've all got homework. I'll help you as much as I can, but I do want you to do the work yourselves."

She led them up through the tunnels, and she thought about what these three could accomplish. The three were as thick as thieves, really, and when she watched them, it reminded her of how Khan, Joaquin Weiss, and Suzette had been, when she had first seen them. Friends who knew each other, as well as two loyal followers who trusted and protected their Leader, no matter what. She hoped that someday, with two such devoted friends, and more control on his anger, her own son could be wise and good ruler.


AN: And there we have it! A new chapter. Thank you all so much for your patience and your diligence. There are two chapters left, and one is an epilogue, so…

I hope that you all can handle what is in store.