Phantom Legacy

Summary: What if Shinzon was given a chance to find his true potential...and someone to share his destiny with?

Rating: R for dark themes and violence. May become higher as the story progresses, consider yourself warned.

Prologue

A lonely space pod slowly moved toward nowhere, its scanners searching for a single life form among trillions.
Inside the pod sat a young woman, aged 20 at most. She eyed the scanners warily, hoping to find something soon.
She sighed softly, and continued speaking her private journal.

'I know I shouldn't feel so bitter about my situation. Millions of my kind have done this before, and will after I have as well. But I simply cannot shake this feeling of despair.
To know that for the rest of my life I shall never be alone with my thoughts, or even with my space for some time.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
My people have existed for generations with the aid of just about every other race you can think of.
We were once formless entities who could feel nothing, but one day that all changed.
My ancestors came across a group of people who had been stranded on our homeworld.
They were all near death, and had no way of being helped.
The bodiless beings of the planet took over the bodies of the stranded humanoids and could for the first time experience sensation.'

A light on the console began to blink, indicating a change in gravity.
'I must be nearing a system.' She thought, as she compensated for the difference.
She waited for the light to return to normal before continuing with her log.

'Their excitement was short lived however, when they discovered that they could not sustain the bodies that they inhabited.
They were missing something that these bodies required to stay alive.
Eventually, after leaving the planet and interacting with other peoples, they discovered a notion known to humanoids as a 'soul.' This 'soul' is what most species believed controlled the future and life force of each being.
My people learned that through joining essences with a person outside of our kind, we could not only sustain our stolen bodies, we could also live forever...
After this, my kind began to reproduce with the humanoids they had joined with. Some of the offspring did not require the joining process, while others, like myself would have to search for a non-symbiod mate as soon as they reached maturity.'She paused to look over all of her instruments.

'My father was like me, though he unfortunately did not find his true mate until he was midway through his 40's, so he was forced into what we call 'the limbo.' He had to make temporary connections with various women in order to stay alive.
I hope I don't have the same problem.'

A shrill beeping sound filled the small pod.
The woman quickly searched her console for the source of the sound.
She could not believe her eyes when the words: "Match Located." Blinked on and off on the computer's main screen.

"Computer, Define location." She said a little too loudly.

A robotic sounding voice answered. "Match was discovered in a warp capable vessel in this system."

"Define vessel." The woman commanded as she proceeded to scan the area.

The computer relayed the information. "Serial number: unknown, Purpose: unknown, Planet of origin: Remus, Title: The Scimitar."

"Remus?" The woman said, perplexed. "Are there any know human settlements on the planet Remus?"

"Negative," The computer replied. "Remus is a Dilithium mining world, the only known settlements are those of the Reman slaves."

The woman frowned. "Define match genotype." She was beginning to worry that her father had given the computer the wrong search data.

"Processing." The computer said. After a moment it began again. "Match is human, male, aged 20 to 26 years, general health is good, though there is a signature in his RNA that cannot be identified without a full physical scan."

The woman raised her eyebrows. "Ok, that's an unusual find in this part of space."

She laid in a course for the vessel then lay back to wait out the ride.

"Computer head for listed coordinates at top speed."

Chapter 1

Shinzon sighed as he settled into his bed.
Today had been the beginning of the end of Reman slavery.
The entire Romulan senate, gone in a matter of seconds. Leaving the space open for him to step in and take control of the people who he had once been forced to call 'Master.'
He shifted slightly to get more comfortable, another luxury he would have to get used to.
Comfort of any kind was practically nonexistent back at the labor camps.
You could get used to sleeping on the cold, hard ground, but the bruises from work, or 'discipline' made sleeping very difficult.

Shinzon scowled as a sharp pain filled his chest. He knew that he did not have much longer to live unless he found Jean-Luc Picard.

As the pain subsided, he found himself exhausted and slowly began to drift into sleep...

WARNING: INTRUDER ALERT
WARNING: INTRUDER ALERT

Shinzon awoke with a start as the alarms blared throughout the Scimitar.
He glanced at the time-piece on his bed table and sighed loudly when it revealed he had only been asleep for about 20 minutes.
Cursing softly, he stood to find out what the problem was when he froze.
He wasn't a telepath, or gifted with any extra senses, but even he could sense when he was not alone in a room so small as his was.

"Who's there?" He said, not allowing the slightest hint of fear or worry enter his voice.

The intruder said nothing.

"I know that someone is in here." He started again. "If you speak now, I may decide not to kill you."

A figure made itself known to him.
They stayed in the darkest part of the room, and only stepped forward enough to make their presence known.

"Who or what are you, and why are you on my ship?"

The figure stepped closer to him, this time stepping into the more illuminated part of the room.

Shinzon could barely contain a gasp when he saw who had invaded his privacy.

A tall, human woman stood before him. She gave him a soft smile and nodded her head.

"Good evening Praetor." She said, as if it were a normal situation.

Shinzon was stunned. He looked over the woman before him slowly, taking in every detail.
He had never seen anything so appealing to his eyes. And that voice...it was the sweetest sound to ever grace his ears. Soft, yet strong and capable.

She wore a heavy cloak over pants that were practically painted on, and made of some black shiny material. These were stuffed into boots that as he looked at them explained why she was as tall as he was.
The tie that held the cloak on her shoulders made a straight line across her chest, just above the low cut shirt she wore.

The woman reached up and pulled the hood down, revealing more of her face, and a mass of ebon hair, that likely reached well past her waist.

Shinzon suddenly realized that, even though he didn't particularly mind her being on his ship (or more accurately, his bed-chamber) He still wanted to know why she was there.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, trying to make his voice both commanding, yet polite.

"You're dying." She stated simply, as if talking of the weather.

Shinzon looked shocked, but heard from her tone, that she would continue, so he remained silent.

"So am I." She continued. "Or at least I will be if I don't do something soon."

Shinzon stepped back from her, an uneasy feeling settled upon him, making him wish he had a weapon.

"Oh, no!" She amended quickly. "I'm not here to harm you, believe me. I have a way to can help both of us."

Shinzon raised an eyebrow, officially skeptical. "Really. And what might that be?"

Just as she was about to explain, several of Shinzon's guards rushed into his room, all of them heavily armed.

They raised their weapons at the woman.

She looked alarmed and quickly backed away from the gun-toting Remans.

"Praetor Shinzon, I know that you have no reason to believe anything I say. But I can save your life."

Shinzon looked back and forth between the woman and his crewmembers.
He nodded once, then raised a hand to signal his guards to drop their weapons.

"Leave us." He commanded simply.

The Remans looked as if they would protest, but eventually followed their orders.

Shinzon waited until they were gone before turning back to her.
The intruder alarms stopped a moment later.

"So, how is it that you can help me?"

The woman smiled softly and began to relay her story.

"So, I would have to become bonded with you?" Shinzon asked about an hour later.

The woman nodded. "Yes, we would be inseparable for the first few days, but eventually the connection will become stronger and allow us to separate and go to different places, as long as we remain within the same enclosure."

"And if I do this, I won't die?" Shinzon asked, his voice more hopeful than he would have liked.

The woman nodded. "Not only will you not die of this illness you have, but you could survive anything else, short of a huge explosion."

"How?" Shinzon asked, the skepticism leaking back into his voice.

"I don't know the schematics of it. All I know is that if I don't join essences with a human male of a certain age bracket within the next few days I'm going to start dying, and if you don't do something soon, you'll already be dead. "

Shinzon sighed. He knew she was right, about him anyway. He would have to ask her later how she knew, but for now he wanted to get some things straight. "Is it permanent?"

The woman shook her head. "Not initially. There's another 'ritual' to go through in order to make the bond complete."

"So what would happen when..." Shinzon started.

"When we break the bond?" The woman finished for him. "To you, nothing right away. You would eventually start getting sick again, and I would have about two weeks to find another suitable host."

"How does it work?" Shinzon asked, standing straighter. He'd already made up his mind, but that didn't mean she needed to know that yet.

The woman smiled. "You simply focus you mind, and let me do the rest. It doesn't even take very long."

Shinzon nodded slowly, coming to terms with his situation. It seemed he had no choice. Besides, he didn't think he would mind having such a lovely creature at his side at all times.

"I accept your...proposal." He said softly moving to stand closer to her.
He had almost expected her to back away, as most people did when he came near them.
Instead she closed in on him, until they were toe to toe.
He could feel the heat of her skin, and her soft breath as it brushed across his bare shoulders.

"Give me your hands." She said quickly, her voice suddenly becoming all business.

Shinzon raised an eyebrow. Now they would be touching. That was something he only allowed of his Viceroy, and even then only when it was necessary.

Nevertheless he gave her his hands, surprisingly content with the feeling of her soft skin against his.

"Close your eyes." She said softly, her voice taking on a lilting tone, as if she was trying to soothe him.

"I...I don't think" Shinzon stuttered as he fought the wave of exhaustion that was settling over him.

"Your mind must be clear." The woman said a bit harshly.

Shinzon surrendered to the calming affect she was having on him. It no longer mattered to him what was going on around him. He just wanted to keep feeling the floating sensation that went through his mind.

Suddenly a sharp pain ripped through his chest. It was the same as the ones that had been happening lately, but tripled!
He was ripped from the feeling of contentment to one of pure anger.

"What are you-!" He shouted through his gasps.

"Shh..." The woman whispered softly. "I have to do this. I have to take it from you."

"I don't under-." He started, when just as suddenly as it had started, the pain stopped.
The calm feeling returned, along with another that he couldn't name. It was like every bit of loneliness he had ever felt in his life was being removed.

"How are you doing this?" Shinzon asked in awe.

The woman smiled softly. "You're feeling the connection with me. It is almost complete."

They stood there silently, hands clasped tightly between them.
Their breathing became in sync and their eyes slowly closed.

In that instant they collapsed onto the floor, hands still linked.

TBC...