Chapter 33: Sides of the Same Coin

"Layla! Layla where are you?!" Hawke hissed as he rounded the corner of another corridor only to find it empty.

"Damn it where could she have gone?"

The teenage Augment groaned to himself as he ran a hand through his hair.

Shit! Only forty five minutes left.

And he was already really far away from the court room.

But even as he made to turn back down the way he came he heard a small sniffle from behind a door close by.

Stealthily as he could he crept towards the automated door, stopping just a foot away from where the motion sensors could pick up his presence. He strained his ears hard.

He could hear the sniffling turn into words.

"No. no. please stop! please!"

Yep bullseye

Hawke sighed heavily as he walked through the door allowing it to admit himself.

"Lights" he muttered and at once the space was illuminated. It was a tiny square janitor's supply closet only one meter by one metre, its walls filled with cleaning equipment and other small items picked up at random.

And there on the floor in the corner just opposite him a small figure in blue and black was curled up into a ball, cringing away from the light.

At once an image flashed across his mind of a twelve year old boy with filthy blonde hair and dressed in torn up equally dirty clothes as he sat huddled up in the dark shadows of a cold wet and muddy cave.

"Leave me alone"

Hawke blinked as Layla looked up at him her visage replacing the horrible memory, though it did nothing to relieve the dull ache in his chest.

Her hair was messy and stringy, her eyes, seeing but unseeing, with red with dark circles under them and her face as white as chalk as tears streamed down it. In short she looked like a train wreck.

Hawke knelt down quickly as she buried her face back into her knees.

He put both his hands on her shoulders gently and winced as she flinched away from him.

"Hey…It's ok… I'm not gonna hurt you" he leaned forwards so that he could wrap his arms about her strongly but gently even as she made to struggle.

"No Lance no! No please! Please don't!"

"Shh…shhh…Layla it's ok it's just me. It's Hawke ok?" Hawke stroked a hand through her hair "Lance is not here. He's been taken back to his cell. You're safe now"

"He's gone?"

"Yes…yes he's gone…"

Hawk exhaled heavily in relief as he felt her relax against him.

"He's gone…and he won't hurt you again I promise…I promise…"

There was a silence as Layla buried her face into the black material of his bodysuit, pressing her ear against his ribcage to listen to the robust beating of his heart.

Its sound was soothing and she shut her eyes as Hawke rested his chin atop of her head, his large hands stroking through the long tresses of midnight black hair soothingly.

His breaths were steady in comparison to her own which were fluttering wildly like a caged bird even as she tried to gulp down air to steady herself.

"Hey…tell you what I'll call Khan and take you back to him" Hawke muttered softly but Layla shook her head.

"No…no…I can't …" she whimpered burying her face into his jacket once more. "Father he knows now…now he'll…he'll hate-"

"Layla! Layla I need you to listen to me Khan's not angry with you" Hawke looked on the sobbing wreck of a girl he was holding "Whatever Lance did to you it wasn't your fault ok"

"But it was" Layla wailed fisting her fingers into his clothes "If I hadn't…If only-"

"If only you could've fought back…" Hawke muttered as he began to rock her back and forth in his arms. "if only could have done something different to stop him…If only you knew what you could've done to save yourself…"

Layla stiffened in his hold.

"H-How did you-"

"I used to think the same way a long time ago"

There was a hush save Layla's small sniffles against Hawke's shirt as he held her tight against himself.

It had been the first time the two of them had actually been this physically close since the first time they'd sparred together all those days ago. That time they had both been bloodthirsty and jealous…now…

"Last year" Layla's voice was barely more than a whisper but still it hit Hawke's ears as loudly as a cry in the silence around them.

"It was last year when Lance…when he… just a week before Marcus was killed…"

Hawke pulled away slightly to look down on Layla as she gulped down a sob.

"I had been trying to find out all I could on Marcus's plans for the Vengeance and the Nemesis. Once the main hull and the ships interiors designs had been created he'd stripped me of all access and authorisation to the project…that might have been because…because that was around the time they found and woke up Father. Now that I think about it…It must have been him that heavily encrypted the computer data… Ironic right? That me and the parent I wanted so long to meet were only living and breathing barely several floors away from each other without even knowing. Thanks to him it took me so many months to discover the appropriate access codes. Once I did I immediately set about trying to hack into the system…but I didn't know…I didn't know…"

"You didn't know Lance was watching you" Hawke muttered and she nodded her eyes streaming over again.

"He came to my rooms. Confronted me…I tried to hide my work but I couldn't. Lance is a master of interrogations…especially those of the more…torturous variety. He was infamous throughout the entire section for dealing out the harshest, cruellest punishments without a shred of mercy whether his victim be good or bad. I was no exception... He told me he would let the whole situation slide if I allowed him to punish me in accordance to the wrongs I had committed … I had invaded the sections' privacy and so in turn my privacy had to be violated"

Hawke felt his gut drop further than a stone in deep water and it was with a horrified shaking voice that he asked.

"D-did he…did-"

Even though she cried Layla shook her head.

"He…he touched me…he touched me really really badly…but Marcus came into the room just before anything could happen" Layla shivered as faint echoes of loud shouts filled her brain from within "He was furious when he saw what Lance was trying to do. I don't think I've ever seen the old man so mad with anyone, even me and that's saying something. I wasn't exactly the most well behaved of kids."

"I'll bet you weren't" Hawke snorted in an attempt to be derisive and snarky, but he was still sounding very much shaken up. "What happened next?"

Layla gave a choked smile but her eyes remained very much sad as they turned to face the floor.

"He had Lance sent to the station's brig right away and then he sent me to Verity to stay with her in the medical bays till he was sure I was in the clear…It was probably the only nice thing the old man ever did for me ever in my life…Don't get me wrong, I hate Marcus and he may have been a power hungry jackass but I guess even he had standards he would not break"

Layla paused to gulp down a huge breath of air as she wiped at her heavily streaming nose.

"Here" Hawke muttered gently taking a mostly clean cleaning cloth from one of the shelves beside him and bringing handing it to the now sniffling girl..

She took it giving a tiny hiccup as air went down the wrong passage and he smirked softly.

"Feeling better?"

"A…A little bit…" Layla muttered though she made no move to detach herself from him. He in return did not make much effort to remove his arm which was settled around her shoulder and pressing her into his side.

"Y'know" Hawke's voice was low and grim. "…the scientists that created me…they did not see me as a feeling being. They did not see me as anything beyond the advanced tracking tool they had engineered me to become. They never even gave me a name…only a number 0-7-1-2-1-9-7-9-"

"And…what is your name now?"

"Hawke" Hawke snorted and despite herself Layla rolled her eyes as irritation overcame her grief for a split moment.

"I know but what's your full name"

"Still Hawke" Hawke smirked "But legally it is…or it was Andrew Isaac Hawkins"

"Isaac?"

"Like Isaac Asimov. Science fiction writer from the Twentieth Century. You probably haven't read his-"

"He wrote The Positronic Man" Layla mumbled and when she felt the body around her stiffen in surprise she sniffled. "It's my favourite book…"

"…Mine too" Hawke's grey eyes softened slightly as a small smile graced his features as he kept his arms firmly around the girl caged in them, not noticing the brief opening or closing of the door to their hideaway, nor the figure that appeared briefly in the threshold before stepping away and leaving them be.

Captain Jim Kirk stepped back from the tiny doorway which hissed shut at once. His eyes were wide from shock even as he made to lean against the wall beside the door and clap his hand over his mouth.

Hawke the stupid ever flirtatious younger man with a superiority complex and Layla the sweet but severely mentally disturbed girl that hated most physical contact …were hugging and sharing a tender moment in a janitor's supply closet?!

And his real name is Andrew…Andrew?

Despite himself a wide grin spread over his face as he bit on his finger to stop himself from chuckling out loud.

Actually wait if Khan hears about this he might just kill him…

Kirk bit his lip and frowned a little. The teenage male augment had been an annoying little egotistical prick sometimes but still…the Starfleet Captain would not wish Khan's wrath on anyone…especially considering the terrible reaction the augment had been upon hearing that his only daughter had been assaulted by that monster of a man.

Kirk looked down at the open communicator in his hand.

He'd set it to record as soon as he'd recognised the voices coming from the closet. He had listened through the door way, horrified by the story he'd just heard

He made to slide down and sit by the wall keeping his ears pricked for any more signs of talking.

He was going to just sit and watch this as it played out.

Besides…he had a good gut feeling about these two…

And Jim Kirk always trusted his gut more than his head.

"Dammit Jim where the hell are you?!" McCoy hissed as he hammered his fingers on the tiny communicator in his hand.

He growled in aggravation when the frequency blipped out of service after a few moments of no response.

"Doctor" a deep voice hissed from a little way up the corridor

"Oh perfect" the doctor in question rolled his eyes as he turned to see Khan Noonien Singh striding towards him.

The Augment's face, though stoic and composed, was white as a sheet and his icy eyes glinting with a suppressed fury.

However McCoy was too pissed off at the moment to register any fear he usually would have felt at such an expression and he snapped gruffly.

"Listen here man it's hard enough for me to concentrate without you breathing down my neck"

"Perhaps it would do you well to compose yourself and listen to what I have to say without biting my head off"

McCoy bristled uncomfortably on his feet as Khan's eyes hardened considerably.

"Alright what is it?"

"If we cannot find Layla or Kirk within the next fifteen minutes your friend Admiral Pike will instead choose to give his testament in court"

McCoy blinked in surprise.

"Well…that's all good…I guess…"

"No it's not" Khan's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits "nothing will be all good until that monster is behind bars or worse"

"Oh yeah…right…" McCoy nodded his brain now suddenly acknowledging the fear that he had hitherto forgotten up till that moment. He glanced at the communicator in his hand and sighed to himself.

Jim wherever you are you better hurry up before Khan goes revenge crazy on us aga-

"Meow!"

Both McCoy and Khan wheeled about in shock only to see a tiny grey kitten sitting bold as brass in the middle of the hall mewling up at them both with wide greenish yellow eyes.

"huh… how did he get out of the room?" McCoy gulped, fearing for the tiny critter as Khan raised his eyebrows coldly at it.

Hubble mewled again this time with a sense of urgency as he trotted on his grey paws up to the Augment's booted feet which it proceeded to paw at urgently.

"I don't have time to play with you" Khan rolled his eyes "Go find Hawke. I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

But even as the last word left his mouth he hissed in pain as tiny but sharp claws sunk through his pants and onto his skin.

"Get off!" he hissed but Hubble hoisted himself up so as to claw his way up Khan's leg.

McCoy snorted as he tried to purse his lips in an attempt to not laugh as Khan scrambled about trying to grab onto the tiny feline and pull it on as it made to clamber up onto his hips and stomach.

"Enough!" the augment snapped finally grabbing Hubble and holding him up in front of him. He glowered angrily as he saw the tiny kitten squirm in his hands. So small, so fragile he could break it in two seconds with a mere twitch of his fingers.

"Mew?"

Hubble tilted his head his eyes growing bigger and rounder as he gazed at his captor, happily oblivious to the wrath directed at him.

Khan's eyebrow twitched slightly as he met the gaze.

He didn't understand why but the way the kitten was looking at him now was almost like how Layla often looked up at him, her eyes full of admiration, warmth and adoration that he felt he was completely undeserving of.

Layla where could you be?

But even as he made to put the kitten down a voice coughed behind his back.

"Ahem"

Khan turned sharply, keeping Hubble close to his body as he did so as his eyes fell upon a woman in grey judicial robes with brown hair tied in a sharp bun.

"Admiral Sterling" he eyed her coldly.

"Mr Singh" She nodded in return un-phased by his scepticism.

"Shouldn't you be talking with your colleagues" he asked placidly though his patience was wearing thinner by the second as his frantic thoughts of his missing daughter kept nudging him in the back of his mind.

"Actually I would like a word with you if that is alright" Sterling met the pale eyes with her own common dark brown ones steadily even as his gaze hardened.

"I am still looking for my daughter"

"I will only take a moment of your time. Besides I think Dr McCoy would be capable of contacting you if he does receive word of her whereabouts"

"I most certainly will. Moron, if you wanted me to leave you could've asked" McCoy added in a low gruff grumble under his breath, rolling his eyes before making to stroll around a corridor.

"What is it that you want?" Khan icily clipped trying to ignore the fact that the small feline in his arms was yawning wide as it settled in his large hands to nap.

Great just what I need for my reputation…the Great Khan Noonien Singh, Emperor of the Khanite and leader of the Augments holding a tiny goddamn sleeping kitten!

If Sterling was amused by the sight she did not show it, instead she thankfully came straight to the point.

"I know you have not had good relations with Starfleet or the Federation thus far Mr Singh. And I think it's fair to say that both yours and my sides have committed actions of…questionable nature in accordance to such misunderstandings"

"You have come to make a deal" Khan's eyebrows rose sardonically "Do your other colleagues know of this or is this to further your own agenda. Because if it is I don't think I need to remind you of the consequences of the last person that tried to exploit me or my people"

"No indeed you don't" Sterling agreed and for the first time her calm façade slipped ever so slightly to reveal her discomfort. "But I'm not making a decision based on a fear of war or a want to further my career. I have earned my stripes honestly and I intend to continue doing so till the day I die"

Khan's eyes turned into slits

"If not ambition then why do you pursue a deal with me?"

"So that the both of us get what we want without bloodshed"

"Which is?"

"Peace and Stability for both our peoples"

"And how would you know I want that?"

"I have esearched your rule of the Khanite both before and during the Eugenics Wars extensively throughout my entire career. One of my ex-pupils Lieutenant McGivers even teaches it as a case study for her political history class back at the Academy."

"I'm flattered" Khan snorted sarcastically "Though if I know anything about this era's history texts it's that I am still known as the Great and Terrible Khan"

"It is true that humanity does paint the augments in a bad light" Sterling agreed her face looking a little guilty "but maybe it's time for all that to change."

"You think it is possible for that to happen?"

Khan sneered at her but Sterling straightened up haughtily.

"No…I know it is possible. From what I have studied your rule of your empire was been by far the most peaceful of all the seven dictators that rose from the Augment's revolution. Whilst you're most recent actions have been more questionable in nature, I cannot deny that you and your people were given the short end of the stick."

"There was no end of any stick to grab hold of in the first place." Khan hissed his mask of scorn slipping into an all too familiar resentment and bitterness "Your colleagues saw me and my race as ordinary humans always have, as weapons…as monsters…so much so that they willingly hurt those who were innocent"

"I know…and I understand where your pain and anger comes from. I have three daughters and a son of my own. They're all grown up now but I still don't think I could ever bear to see them go through what your own daughter went through on her own like that. As a parent it's excruciating to even see them cry as they fall and scrape their knee when they try and learn to ride a bike for the first time. Perhaps its not the same kind of hurt you probably feel…but still…"

Sterling sighed heavily pinching the bridge of her nose.

"No parent should have to go through such hell human or otherwise"

Khan snorted under his breath, but even as he looked her in the eye he saw no lie nor any malice. Her gaze was purely empathetic.

Just like that stupid idiot Kirk…

But just how much closer to freedom had Khan come by allying with the younger man already?

"What offer do you have in mind" he murmured and Sterling sighed softly with relief.

"You and your people will be granted freedom and the Federations support and protection. I personally would choose to colonise close to another Federation planet like New Vulcan. Since Vulcan's are a more advanced race similar in strength and intelligence to your own kind you might find them to be very beneficial trading partners and allies in war"

Khan nodded quietly albeit slightly disgruntledly.

Despite his misgivings and resentment to a certain Vulcan Starfleet Commander, Khan was no fool. One thing he was slowly coming to learn from this century (mainly from his daughter) was that one must sometimes abandon pride to fulfil necessity.

But still…

"What is the price for such an offer?"

"As an act of goodwill, you and your currently unfrozen crew must help Starfleet locate those eleven Augments that have gone rogue and…" Sterling paused biting her lip slightly nervously as Khan quirked an imperious eyebrow down at her.

"And?"

"And you must let both your daughter and that young augment boy attend Starfleet Academy"

YESS! finally we're getting somewhere. boy this chapter packed a punch on my brain and imagination.

so yeah Khan might have finally caught the big break he's been waiting for and Layla and Hawke are getting somewhere in understanding one another whilst Kirk watches in secret (lol sneaky Kirk)

speaking of which, here is a fun fact: Hawke's serial number 0-7-1-2-1-9-7-9 is actually the date of the first release of the first, very original very much beloved "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". i thought it would be fitting seeing as on September 8th marked the 84th Anniversary of Star Trek itself

Also as you will have read his full name came from another one of my favorite sci-fi creations Isaac Asimov's The Positronic Man (the main character of which is called Andrew and is written as before mentioned by the great Isaac Asimov). You guys might not know the book but there was a movie made about it in 1999 called Bicentenial Man that starred the great Robin Williams. If you haven't seen it yet i'd highly recommend it. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be amazed. I know i was.

See you next chapter and keep Reading and Reviewing for more :)

(Happy Anniversary Star Trek!)