Interchapter

She was locked into a tube – cell was far too generous a word. She was only small, a mere slip of a girl, but even so there was no room to move, barely enough room to breathe. None of this was accidental. They had known precisely how large she was long before they had taken her, and her confinement had been designed precisely. They didn't want her to be able to move, or breathe, and the drugs that were routinely pumped into her blood and kept her at the verge of unconsciousness prevented her from thinking.

They were inhumane to their captive, but this they did for their own safety, not because they wanted to. They had no wish to see her suffer or die. They were scientists, and she was their subject, an object of great curiosity for them. She was worthless dead.

She was too dangerous for anything but the strictest confinement.

"This is her?" The voice was distant, hazy, although the speaker stood just inches from her, staring her in the face. Dark eyes, thick black eyebrows swept away towards the top of her head; no compassion in her expression, nothing but interest and perhaps disbelief.

"Of course. Can't you see it yourself? Look at the eyes."

"Hardly conclusive."

"Listen to your heart," the other speaker encouraged. "What does it tell you? Look at her. Look past the weak human flesh. See her spirit."

The second speaker was a shadow; she could make out no features, just a vague form standing next to her tube. The voice was like silk, strangely soft and beautiful, despite the terrible things it said.

The first scientist looked towards the second. "You believe her to be the Destroyer?"

"It's not a matter of belief."

The speaker's face floated into view, thin and skeletal, grey eyes cold and reptilian, his pointed ears especially pronounced against his baldhead. A line of pinkish flesh, the scar of a long-ago lab accident that had never healed, traced from the tip of his right eye to his lips. It was a visage that she would never forget.

"It's a matter of fact."

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"Alix! What's wrong?"

She had awoken with a start, a scream on her lips, her body drenched in sweat. For long, agonizing seconds she didn't know where she was, the memory of the dream still with her; it took several lifetimes for the tube to disappear from around her and her comfortable room on the Endeavour to take its place.

The face that was leaning over changed as well, no longer the terrible Romulan visage, although what replaced it would be of comfort to very few; perhaps only one: glowing red eyes were not to everyone's taste.

"Alix?"

"What happened, Kana?"

"You were dreaming."

"Dreaming?" What an absurd notion that seemed to her. "It seemed so real."

"Just a dream, Alix; I assure you."

She drew in a breath, reassured by her counterpart's words, by the comfortable surroundings. But the Destroyer was not quite right in what she said. "No. Not just a dream. A memory, too."

That made the Destroyer frown. "A memory? Of what?"

"R'nari. That ordeal."

Kana nodded, understanding her friend's reaction now. Dr. R'nari, the Romulan scientist who had captured them both when Alix was very young, having discovered the human's great dark secret. The name alone brought back all kinds of memories for the Destroyer, and they were memories that she did not find pleasant. For her host, who at that time had no real understanding of the harshness of reality, it had been utterly horrific. Kana knew that her counterpart was still haunted by what had happened so long ago.

"Are you all right now?"

"No," said Alix truthfully. "Better, but not all right."

"R'nari's dead, Alix. He can't hurt us anymore."

"I know. It's not him I'm thinking about. I'm thinking about what we saw on Herminie, and what it could mean for the galaxy. We worked so hard for peace, Kana, and now…"

"If you want peace you must prepare for war. Your own species said as much."

"Kana…"

"Alix, there will be peace. The next generation will grow up never knowing the Klingons as anything but friends, and I will be bored senseless by how quiet the quadrant has become. But before that can happen the last of the old guard must be brushed away."

"You're sure of a bright and happy future?"

"Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise…" She quoted.

The girl grinned, feeling so much better. "I love it when the evil Destroyer is the one to cheer me up."

"I have considered a career in therapy, but I think listening to other people whine would try my patience."

Alix chuckled. "Probably. I hope you're right Kana. About the future, I mean. Right now, it looks like things are getting worse, not better."

"You'll see," Kana said confidently. "Perhaps you should go back to sleep. Tomorrow could be a long day."

Alix looked at her comfortable bed, the sleep it offered, and she shook her head. "Nah. I think I'll stay awake."