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It was late at night and Spock and Hakun still stayed at the tunnels. Hakun was scared; he had lived in D'Tan's house all his life, always safe under the protection of the more powerful man. Just as D'Tan, his parents had taught him about their common ancestry with Vulcans since a very early age, learning of a different history to that taught at school. Just as D'Tan, his parents had also died young, leaving him orphaned. Hakun's parents had been servants at D'Tan's house, and he had remained at the manor after their death. Now Hakun was also a servant, and a fellow follower of Unification, and he liked to think that he was also a friend. He accompanied D'Tan and Spock in their many travels, and even if always wearing the clothes marking his station, when they were alone with other members of the cultural movement, he was an equal in spite of his lower social status. At D'Tan's house, he had had access to his large library, and he had been encouraged to read books that otherwise would have been forbidden to him. In the secrecy of the tunnels, many times he was the one teaching others of higher rank and education what he had learnt. Most Romulans feared D'Tan, and they imagined working for him could be hell. Those people had never actually met the man, they only knew his public image, and D'Tan's surface was just a convenient but dangerous lie.

Hakun had always been close to the other young man, maybe because he had many times accompanied him and his parents to their meetings when he was just a kid and had soon discovered the bright and compassionate boy who now hid under the Tal Shiar's gray uniform. During those first years he had lived with his parents, D'Tan had not actually paid him much attention, but when he orphaned everything changed. Now they shared a more powerful link than their common subversive opinions, and probably remembering the anguish he had also felt, D'Tan welcomed and protected Hakum.

Illness had taken Hakun's parents away from him, D'Tan's had been murdered in front of his eyes. Hakun suspected that violent end had marked him and all his future actions. D'Tan, a good man by nature, had hardened his soul to steel, vowing to make his parents' dream true, and never forgetting where he came from and what he fought for, he had set himself on a hazardous path.

D'Tan had lived a double life most of his existence and now faced the final test. Hakun, always under his wing, had feared this moment, because his protector's downfall could also be his own. He looked up at Spock with doubtful hope; he wondered what kind of life would await him beside the foreign man if D'Tan failed.

The tunnels were damp and cold. They had set camp in an abandoned electric substation that had not worked for at least five centuries. Most of the old equipment and cables were gone and behind the door still signaling the danger of being electrocuted in faded letters, a cramped but still very much dry room welcomed them. A ramshackle stove provided some warm to the room; there were sleeping bags on the floor and a good amount of canned food and stored water in a metal tool cabinet.

Spock had taken his firepot with him and now he was as calm as ever, meditating. Hakun just feigned to sleep, but his eyes never stayed close for long. He now observed the Vulcan man, wondering which his plans were in case D'Tan never called back for them. As his nerves got the best of him, he reached out his hand to take the rucksack he had taken with him as his only remaining possession. He had prepared it in a rush and had not been sure of what to take, but he had two very precious items. First, he looked in the gloom created by the stove for a small piece of already worn cloth. Hakun unfolded it and took a small necklace; it has been his mother's. Emotions tried to engulf him in a too known world of darkness, distress and sorrow. He tightened his grip on the beloved jewel and kept it close to his heart. Hakun had never worn the too feminine necklace, but now that he felt orphaned again, he passed the fine silver cord over his head and placed the necklace under his shirt, close to his heart and soul. Hakun did not want to be alone, and hoped that the gesture would make both his parents come back to protect and guide him, wherever they stayed in bliss. Katra, his mind made the Vulcan word for soul, and he took off the bag the other object he felt need of. It was a book and it had been D'Tan's; the other man had insisted on him taking it. Hakun knew D'Tan parents had passed it to him. Hakun opened it and tried to read his darkened pages; there was not enough light. He gulped, almost sobbed; he did not want to own that book. He wondered what the time was; he knew the night was passing by.

Distressed, he looked up at Spock again from his sleeping bag and found the Vulcan ambassador also gazing at him. He met squarely the deep dark eyes and tried to find at least reassurance. Hakun trusted Spock and was sure he would take care of him, as D'Tan had promised him, but that was not enough to get solace.

Suddenly, a new shadow crossed his mind, as a noise outside startled him. He winced inwardly and remained utterly still. Spock was quiet. A minute went by and nothing else was heard.

"Did you hear it?" Hakun whispered with apprehension, as his eyes turned towards the door.

"I heard nothing, Hakun," Spock's voice was as always calm. "There is no one out there."

And Spock's words sounded as if he talked to a frightened child, and surprisingly, he pronounced them as if he were too used to them. Hakum wondered if Vulcan children felt the same dread in spite of their early training and so Spock had repeated those same words to his own children many times.

But Hakun was not a child anymore, even if he was nevertheless very much afraid. He tried to calm himself. He took a last worried look at the door before meeting Spock's gaze again, and voiced the new thought that was tormenting him, "Spock, what if… what if D'Tan betrays us?" He realized as his words were out, how hard and unbearable they were, and immediately corrected himself, "I mean, not that he would willingly betray us, but what if, what if he is forced to do so?"

Spock did not need to look at the closed door to know what he was thinking about. "D'Tan does not know about the existence of this refuge. That's why I chose it."

Hakun gasped in shock. "He doesn't? You didn't tell him? You didn't trust him?!" His voice was getting louder with each question.

Spock, however, kept his own voice low. "I trust him, Hakun. But there are some places that I know and he does not, and others that are only known by him. We have to be cautious. It is safer this way."

Hakun digested the new information slowly, "So if the worst happens…" he whispered.

"We are safe," Spock finished for him.

Just at that moment, both of them heard clearly approaching steps.