When Scotty opened his eyes he had never seen such a wonderful sight. He was back onboard the Enterprise and was stood on its transporter pad. He quickly glanced down to see if Lexie was still with him, which he was happy to see was still the case. Scotty still had his arms wrapped around her; she still had her eyes tightly shut so it seemed like Lexie hadn't realized that they were no longer onboard her uncle's ship. "I am relieved to see the two of you back, Mr Scott." Spock said calmly as he stood up from the control panel, "I'm happy to be back Mr Spock and thank you." Scotty replied with a smile, he then turned his attention back to Lexie, who still hadn't opened her eyes. "Lexie, you can open your eyes. We're back on the Enterprise." Scotty said reassuringly, slowly Lexie fluttered her eyes open. Scotty let her go so she could look around, just then she saw Spock walking over to them. "May I suggest that the two of you head down to Sickbay, you both look like you have been injured." The Vulcan stated, but Lexie was reluctant to go. "No, Kyle doesn't give up that easily. If he feels like he's losing he won't think twice about firing on the Enterprise. I know him better than anyone on this ship, I know how he fights so I have to be on the bridge."
Lexie quickly went to step off the pad, however she only took one step before falling over in pain. The beatings she had been subjected to were catching up with her. Scotty got to her side, while Spock also came to her aid. "Lieutenant, you are in no condition to be walking let alone to be standing on the bridge. You must seek medical attention." Lexie just shook her head as Scotty helped her to her feet, "She won't listen to ya lad, this is personal and she's right about knowing him better than any of us." Scotty replied as he walked Lexie slowly over to the door, he turned back to see one of the Vulcan's eyebrows raised as normal, Scotty was worried that he would give them both the Vulcan nerve pinch since the pair of them were disobeying an order from a higher ranked officer. But Spock didn't, in fact he seemed to understand their reasoning. "I see, in that case I will help you both to the bridge, since both of you appear in some level of pain." Scotty wasn't going to argue with that, he too was feeling the effects of the fights he had been in, but he could guarantee that Lexie was in more pain. Despite this the three Officers headed off towards the bridge.
When they did stumble onto the bridge it was clear that something was going on, since there were more than just a few Officers scattered around and one announced that the other ship had powered up its weapons. "Captain!" Yelled Spock, Kirk turned around immediately. He couldn't help but smile at the sight that greeted him, but it was clear to see that both of his Engineers had been through a rough time. He quickly darted out of his chair and sprinted over to them, "You don't know how happy I am to see the pair of you!" Scotty smiled at him. "Aye, we're glad to see ya too Captain." McCoy then burst out from the turbo lift, "My god, the two of you look like you've been dragged through hell!" He exclaimed; Lexie sighed. "In a way we have, McCoy." Lexie then turned to face her Captain. "Sir, that ship will not hesitate to fire on us. Federation or not! The man onboard that ship will stop at nothing!" Kirk placed a hand on her shoulder, "Take it easy Lexie, to what man are you referring to?" He asked but Lexie didn't reply, so Kirk turned to Scotty for an answer. "She's talking about Kyle Sir." McCoy gave the Scotsman a confused look, he was about to ask who that was when suddenly Uhura interrupted. "Captain, the vessel is hailing us. Visual and audio." Kirk returned to the command chair, giving Uhura a nod to signify to put it on the view screen. When the screen switched on an all too familiar face to both Scotty and Lexie appeared.
"Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" Asked the man, Kirk didn't hesitate to answer. "James. T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise. Who am I speaking to?" "I'm Kyle John Malone and I am well acquainted with your two Engineers over there." Kirk turned around to see Lexie staring at him. "Lexie, who is he?" Asked Kirk, she gulped quietly before answering. "My uncle Captain. My monster of an uncle." Everyone on the bridge had the same expression plastered over their faces, Kirk then turned back to face the view screen, but before he could say a word, Kyle spoke. "I feel offended." Lexie just gave him a death stare, "If you so much as fire one phaser at this ship, I will make sure that you will regret it!" As she spoke Lexie took a step towards the screen, however her leg gave out, thankfully Scotty lunged forwards and grabbed her before she tipped over. Kyle just laughed, "This is coming from the person who can't stand on her own. Captain Kirk, I will make this very easy, give me my niece and I will leave peacefully." Kirk crossed his arms. "And what if I refuse?" "I will take her by force, even if it means destroying your ship." Kirk turned to face Scotty who had Lexie holding on to him. "I refuse to hand one of my crew over to any monster and if you open fire on us, we will retaliate as it is seen as an act of war." Kyle almost seemed to growl at Kirk's reply before shutting off the transmission.
Kirk got the attention of Sulu and Chekov, "Get a weapons lock on that ship, but do not fire unless I order it or we are fired upon first." Both of the officers nodded, Kirk then went back over to see how Lexie was doing. McCoy was trying to give her a look over, but she wasn't having any of it. "For the love of… would you sit still!" He yelled, "I'm fine, Scotty's worse." She muttered as she squinted her eyes in pain. "Lex, let McCoy at least give you something for the pain." Scotty pleaded, Lexie span round to face him. "I lived in pain for almost ten years! I don't need anything!" Lexie almost instantly realised what she had done, tears slowly dripped from her eyes. "I didn't mean…" She didn't get to finish before Scotty pulled her in for a hug, "It's alright Lex, I know you didn't mean to yell. You're hurt and afraid, but please let McCoy help. You don't have to deal with the pain anymore, nor will you ever have to again, not by Kyle's hand, I promise." Kirk was lost for words and so was the whole bridge. Eventually Lexie allowed McCoy to give her a hypo of pain killers, but insisted on staying on the bridge. Knowing he wasn't going to be able to persuade her to leave, McCoy just turned his attention on Scotty to treat him instead, however he was the exact same. It was clear he didn't want to leave Lexie, so McCoy just left it there, not wanting to argue with them. "How the hell did you know we were gone?" Questioned Scotty.
Kirk smiled as he pointed over Scotty's shoulder, he turned round to see Keenser standing in the doorway. He quickly ran over and hugged Scotty which he wasn't expecting, he had never done that before. "It's good to see ya too wee man." Keenser soon let go of Scotty and moved on to Lexie, who was more than happy to hug him back. "I'm glad to see you too. Thank you Keenser." The Engineer soon let her go. "And my second question is, how the hell did you find us?" Scotty asked, Kirk gestured over to Chekov who turned his chair around, sitting on his lap was a familiar robot. Chekov had gone and collected him from Lexie's quarters so he could be on the bridge when the two of them returned. "Delta helped us; he tracked a watch you apparently always wear Lexie." Kirk stated, Lexie had completely forgotten about her watch and the fact that Delta could track it. Chekov placed Delta down on the floor and he hurried over to Lexie, screaming her name as he jumped into her waiting arms. "Oh Delta thank you." Lexie said as she hugged him tightly. Delta didn't reply, he just enjoyed the moment. Kirk was convinced that if Delta could cry then he would be in a flood of tears. Suddenly the ship shook violently, sending everyone flying from their seats. Delta even tumbled across the floor. "Sir, we've been fired at!" Called Sulu, Kirk scrambled to his feet. "Return fir…" His order was cut short when he heard Scotty scream. He turned round to see Lexie slowly get absorb by a whirlwind of light, Scotty reached out to grab her, but it was too late. She had vanished, "Do not fire! I repeat do not fire!" Kirk cried. Scotty fell to his knees. "No…" He muttered. It wasn't as if they didn't know where she had gone, they all just stared at the ship which was being shown on the view screen.
Lexie knew instantly where she was, but this time she was alone. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to jump out of her chest, breathing was becoming harder to do with each passing second. Just then she heard a door open, whipping around expecting her uncle to be the one walking in, but it wasn't him. Turned out to be Shawn, "The boss wants to see you." He said, Lexie backed away from him, but there wasn't really anywhere for her to go. So he didn't have any trouble grabbing hold of her and dragging her out of the room. Soon they entered onto the bridge, almost instantly Shawn shoved her down onto the floor. Lexie landed with considerable force at someone's feet, she knew who they belonged to. "Did you really think you were safe from me?" A voice said, Lexie didn't reply. She then felt herself being hauled off the floor by her collar, to be greeted by Kyle's smug face. "You don't seem happy to see your own family?" Lexie glared at him, "My family is the crew of the Enterprise, not you!" Kyle smiled. "Then you can watch as I destroy your precious little family… For the second time." Lexie's face went white. "No!" She screamed. Kyle then threw her against the wall and turned his back on her.
Lexie felt as if her whole body was on fire, clearly whatever pain killers McCoy had given her were either wearing off or they were too weak to cancel out this much pain. She tried to get up several time, but with little success, Lexie could only watch as Kyle began locking the ships phasers onto the Enterprise. Kyle's ship wasn't that big, nor was it very powerful, but since she was onboard Lexie knew that Kirk wouldn't order the Enterprise to fire back and she was sure that Kyle knew this. Tears rolled down her face as she watched the ship she called home get bombarded with phaser blasts and the odd photon torpedo, Lexie knew the Enterprise's shields wouldn't last forever and as long as she was held captive they wouldn't fight back. It was then Lexie saw something lying next to her, it was a sword. Not a fencing sword, but an actual sword, it was also within reach. That was the moment she knew that she had to fight back, not just for herself but for her friends. Using all of her strength she got to her feet and grabbed the sword before either of her captors had noticed. Lexie then lept at Shawn, sending him crashing to the ground and using the hilt of the sword hit him around the head, knocking him out. Kyle had noticed the commotion, he turned to find Lexie standing over his henchman, sword in hand. Kyle just smirked as he grabbed something off the console, it was a sword. "You never quit do you!" Lexie stared deeply into his eyes, "Stop your attack on the Enterprise and surrender your ship and yourself over to the Federation!" Kyle simply returned the stare. "Make me!" Lexie tightened her grip of her sword; she was ready since a fight was inevitable.
Neither Lexie nor Kyle were holding anything back as they continued their sword fight. While Lexie was only trying to wound her uncle, so she could stop him from attacking the Enterprise again, Kyle had other ideas. He was trying everything he could to kill her, he wanted her dead and he was sick of waiting. Both of them had already landed a few, non-fatal hits on each other. Lexie's red uniform shirt was covered in tiny slits where Kyle's blade had cut through it to get to her flesh. It was clear by the look on Kyle's face that he was frustrated at how well Lexie was holding her own, therefore his movements became more and more aggressive which Lexie was finding hard to deal with. She was no longer able to get her sword anywhere near Kyle, since she was using it to stop his sword from possibly stabbing her. Suddenly Kyle lunged forward, Lexie tried to block it but it was impossible. The tip of the blade caught her scar, re-opening it as a result. Lexie cried out in pain, "Not again!" Lexie told herself, as she pressed a hand against the wound. She looked over at her uncle just in time to see the hilt of his sword hurdling towards her head, Lexie didn't have time to move. She ended up falling to the floor and instantly curling up in pain. "This wouldn't have happened if you just behaved!" Kyle yelled as he stepped over to her, kicking her in the stomach. Once again Lexie screamed out in agony as Kyle continued to yell, "You're a coward! A pathetic child who chose to disobey me!" Lexie managed to lift her head up so she could see him.
"You're delusional!" Lexie called, by the look on Kyle's face he didn't seem very happy about that. He simply kicked her once again, harder than the last time and then turned his back on her to return to the weapons console. "I don't know what they see in you, but I will make sure they never get to see your face again!" Kyle had one fist raised in the air, ready to bring it down to activate the ships weapons once more when he heard something behind him. Upon turning round he was greeted by a sword, jabbing him in the abdomen, not fatally but enough to wound him. The wielder was Lexie, she somehow managed to struggle to her feet despite her own injurie which was dripping slowly with blood. "Bit of advice, don't turn your back on someone with a sword." Lexie stated as she watched her uncle drop to the floor, she could easily kill him, but knew that despite everything he had done that wouldn't be right. So instead she ran as quickly as she could off the bridge and back to what she believed was the ships transporter room. Lexie soon stumbled in, almost collapsing in pain but she forced herself over to the control console and laid in a set of coordinates, then hobbled onto the pad, she knew Kyle wouldn't stay down for long and that Shawn was probably coming around. Soon Lexie was once again consumed by a whirlwind of light just before vanishing, praying she had got the coordinates right.
The bridge of the USS Enterprise was in chaos. Everyone was trying to keep things together after the bombardment they had taken. Scotty was sat on the step next to the command chair while McCoy sat next to him, "She better be alright or I'll never forgive myself…" Scotty muttered trying his hardest not to cry. "We'll get her back Scotty, don't worry." McCoy replied softly as he was trying to comfort his friend, he had never seen the Scotsman like this before. Chekov was taking care of Delta, their robotic friend had been thrown around the bridge like a rag doll during the attack and one of his arms had fallen off which Chekov was mending for him, all while he was still doing his duties as Navigator. "Thanks for taking the time to fix my arm Pavel." Delta said quietly as Chekov worked away, "You're welcome Delta, I know for a fact that Lexie wouldn't be too happy about you only having one arm." At that moment, a crew member cried out and pointed to the view screen, but it wasn't something on it they were referring too. Someone was transporting directly onto the bridge, Kirk immediately pulled out his phaser along with most of the officers that were on the bridge, since they were unaware of who was beaming aboard. But soon the person materialised fully and Kirk yelled for all phasers to be put away, since the person was Lexie. Scotty instantly lept from the step and rushed over to her, yelling her name. Lexie slowly turned to face him, tears rolling down her face. Scotty hugged her softly since he knew she was already hurt, "I was so worried about you." Scotty whimpered, once again trying not to cry. Lexie was just about to reply when the view screen flickered on and a voice cried out angrily. "You insolent brat! You've tested my patience for the last time! Don't forget that I own you!"" Lexie turned to face the view screen and took a huge breath. "I'm not a thing you own! Not anymore! I don't intend to suffer at your hand ever again!"
Kyle just stared into her eyes, "I can still see the fear in your eyes, you're still afraid of me." Lexie closed her eyes. "I was afraid of you, but that was when I was alone, without people to call family. But I'm not alone anymore and I do have a family, so I'm not afraid of you, not anymore. It's just a shame that it took so long, for me to be rescued." Kyle seemed to growl at her words, "You would be nothing without me! Because of me you're everything!" Lexie opened her eyes. "You're right, because of you I am who I am today, but I'm taken control because this life is mine. Not yours to dictate." Kyle seemed just stared at her. It was then Kirk stepped forward, "Kyle Malone, I order you to surrender yourself and your vessel over to the Federation or we will not hesitate to destroy you, since the actions you have displayed are considered as act of war against us." Kirk's voice was stern as he gave his order, but Kyle didn't seem like he was going to listen. "I will not hand myself over to likes of you, I will simply destroy you!" He cried angrily, "Very well, Uhura cut transmission. Sulu, Chekov get a weapons lock back on that ship and wait for my command to fire." Kirk stated as he stared out at the ship. He soon gave the order and Kyle's ship was soon destroyed. Lexie watched as it exploded right in front of her eyes, when it was over she collapsed to her knees. Scotty quickly knelt next to her and wrapped his arms around her as she cried, "It's over now Lexie. It's over. He can never hurt you again." He released her from his arms only to see a wet stain on her shirt, Scotty knew what it meant. "I forgot about that…" Lexie chuckled just before she fainted, Scotty scooped her up in his arms and darted off the bridge, closely followed by McCoy.
Scotty was pacing the length of sick bay while he waited on news about Lexie. She wasn't in surgery or anything, but McCoy had refused to allow Scotty in the room while he treated her, mainly because Scotty still hadn't been treated for his own injuries and he would just get in the way. Just then he heard a door slide open, but it was only the door which led out into the hall, through it walked Kirk with Delta sitting like a metallic parrot on his shoulder. "Any news?" Kirk asked, Scotty shook his head. "Nothing, McCoy wouldn't even let me in the room. I just wanna…." Scotty hadn't stopped pacing while he answered his Captain, but suddenly he whimpered in pain clutching his arm over his chest. Kirk quickly ran over to him, "Take it easy Scotty, I got ya." Kirk led him over to a vacant biobed and gently laid him down. "Nurse!" Kirk yelled and almost instantly a nurse hurried into the room. "Could you please treat Mr Scott's injuries?" Kirk asked, Scotty wanted to argue but he didn't have the strength too, so he just laid there while the nurse treated him. Turned out that he had three cracked ribs which were the main reason for his pain, but also a bit of internal bruising which would clear up in a couple of days. The nurse gave him some pain killers and suggested that he laid down for a little while. Not exactly what Scotty wanted to hear, but he wasn't going to argue with her, not while his Captain was in the room. "How do you feel now?" Kirk asked once the nurse had left them alone, "Better Sir. But I'm worried about Lexie." Kirk sat on the edge of the bed and settled Delta down next to him. "I know you are Scotty, I am too. But, she's a fighter. She'll be fine." Kirk stated with a smile, Scotty wanted to smile back but he just couldn't.
The door to the other room suddenly slid open and out walked McCoy, "How is Lexie?" Scotty asked as he tried to sit up, but with no strength he just flopped back down. "That will teach you to try and get up. As for Lexie she's just fine." McCoy replied, "Can I see her?" He asked quickly. McCoy nodded reluctantly; Scotty managed a tiny smile as he glanced over at Kirk. "Kindly help me up, would ya Jim?" Kirk simply nodded, but he couldn't help but smile slightly. It was odd to hear Scotty call him by name, but when he did it always made him smile. Kirk helped Scotty out of the bed and into the other room. Lexie was sat up in bed and upon seeing the Scotsman she smiled brightly. Kirk placed Scotty down gently on the bed, then stepped away. "How ya feeling lass?" Scotty asked as tiny tears formed in his eyes, "I feel fine Scotty, what about you?" She questioned. "I'm feeling as good as I can be with three cracked ribs lass, but I feel better knowing that you're alright." Lexie blushed slightly as she lent over and gave Scotty a gentle hug. "Thank you Scotty, for everything." "You're welcome lass." They let each other go to see that both of them had tears slowly running down their cheeks, but neither of them seemed to mind.