A/N: sorry for the no show; I've had a few surgeries and I'm finally on the mend. Warning for all POVs that they describe and discuss non/con situations. Please if this could be at all triggering for you please avoid this chapter and possibly this story because aside from Forget me not this is a pretty rough story. I do promise however that this story does have a happy ending for both S/U couples. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth writing. I still plan to update if I were you and there will be more of this story as well so I can finish up everything. Thanks for still reading, please review.

Chapter 6: Compromise

AOS SPOCK POV

It was unsettling to wake beside her. Sleeping in the crook of his arm, this mirror Nyota laid nestled against his chest. Her right leg was casually thrown over his hip and her small hands were pressed at his sides.

Spock held his breath. He worried shifting too suddenly might wake her. His skin felt like a living thing against hers. It pulsed and churned with her proximity. The thin chemise she wore was up around her waist but he was relieved to find that nothing indecent was or had taken place between them.

Strange, he hadn't remembered moving from his place on the couch nor did he recall crawling into bed. He blinked towards the living room area then back towards the nearly nude woman beside him.

More sensations came to Spock as he steadily grew more alert. There was the sticky dryness to his tongue and his eyes burned from dryness.

Dehydration? Vulcans did not sweat but perhaps he had panted in his sleep? It wasn't a problem he typically had but then again he typically did not have nightmares. However, humans did and there was one sleeping pressed against him.

As carefully as he could Spock extracted himself from under her leg and rose out of bed. On silent feet he made his way to his desk. Once there he retrieved the water pitcher perched atop it and poured its contents into a nearby glass. The tremor in his hands made the task slower but he managed to complete without spilling water everywhere.

He took the glass to his lips and recalled the scene that had played within his mind. A disturbing thought came to him. It hadn't felt like a nightmare. Given the level of detail, Spock was afraid that what he took to be a memory was actually this Nyota's memory.

He fought to steady his nerves as he chased down the rest of water in two, quiet gulps. Whatever he witnessed was foreign yet the feel of it was so real.

His hair was a mess around his ears from his restlessness. He used his twitching fingers to neatly comb it back into place. He questioned whether or not he should try to go back to sleep but the thought of doing that again had little appeal. What if he dreamed again? What if it became worse?

An internal check of his clock let him know there were still four hours and twenty three minutes before he needed to rise and ready himself for work.

He looked back at the bed and saw Nyota still dozing beneath the sheets. He grunted and looked down at his hand. It was still twitching. He didn't know what to do. The water had only helped his mouth but his mind was abuzz. The darkness of his quarters did little to soothe.

Seeing no respite in sight, Spock settled down onto the couch and steepled his fingers. He didn't wish to review the disturbance but it would not leave him if he ignored it. Laying down across the length of the sofa he closed his eyes.

The first scene was familiar. He remembered there had been flashes of this- nightmare- as he and this double of his lover fought the first night. Things that her Spock had done but he, himself, had never even thought possible of doing. Actions that he felt better qualified as sadistic rather than domineering.

The vision had bile rising up within his throat yet again. In that reality he was cruel...to everyone. His chest ached in remorse from that other's foulness and yet he found himself reviewing it, if only to understand this Nyota better. Maybe he would learn why she said she could not give into kindness?

Reviewing the vision his face had been like a stranger's as it loomed behind her in their quarters, bearded and roughly hewn. It was her last memory of seeing her Spock before her departure into his universe.

The second scene flowed from the first without interruption. It was memory. He could feel her emotions as if they were his own. And yet he could feel the undercurrent of his own mental signature from her Spock.

The vision was one of humiliated-ecstasy as he had coitus with her on the bridge. It was the day he made her his woman, the day he let the whole of the ship know that no one but he could touch Nyota Uhura.

Kirk had been busy making himself Captain and he gave his newly made first officer the con. But it hadn't been without a gift. A furious, rope-bound Nyota sat growling in the Captain's chair.

The bearded version of him could hardly contain himself. What a prize. The most beautiful and deadly woman on the ship, for him. Kirk probably saw Uhura as a way of keeping his first officer contented. Better that the Vulcan was kept busy with a mate rather than idle with time for plots.

When that Spock finally did seize Nyota, Spock could feel his heart race in horror.

He sat down in the chair with his hair was tossed haphazardly about his head, not unlike the state it had been in when he first woke up. The vile version tilted his head back to get a better view of his chosen female's moaning face.

Straddled over his lap, Nyota keened as Spock raised her up and down his lok. Her wrists and biceps had been cuffed together behind her back, ensuring his safety and his dominance. When she accepted her fate as his, the bearded Spock forced her climax. Mid-throes he marked her shoulder in front of the crew, glaring out at them as he held her between his teeth.

For her, that was what being bonded to a Vulcan meant. The thought sickened him. To treat his bondmate, any bondmate in such a manner, whether in this universe or the next, was horrid. Whoever he was in that...that mirrorverse did not deserve a gift such as Nyota.

Crass as she was, this Nyota was still tender to others. He could feel it as she slept, her yearning to be held against him. Her empathy, however, was buried deep down within her. She was merely surviving as a being but she had hopes and ambitions. That other plane of existence, however, had made his mate into a monster.

Perching his elbows onto his couch, the Vulcan sat up and palmed his face into his hands. So much of her was the same but being around this version of Nyota frightened him. And now he had a good idea as to why.

Shame welled in his chest even though it was not his to bare. Spock felt it anyways if only to give her some small semblance of justice.

When she met his eyes in those vulnerable moments, Uhura's double would shoot him an accusatory look of mistrust. Don't even complete that thought, not a word out of you, the glare seemed to convey as she would sashayed out of sight. The uncharacteristic dismissal would then wrench him back in place. An awkward space of self confinement and denial.

But now he knew why. Nyota could not be safe with him because her bond with his other had their lives hanging in the balance. In a world of monsters they became the most fearsome; even towards each other.

He drew a breath and startled as he noted a dark figure sitting up on the bed.

Nyota. She had awoken sometime during his review and was watching him from under the duvet. Something about her expression let him know that she knew. " You saw?"

" Yes." he said. His voice shook more than he thought it might, relaying his discomfort.

She turned her face down towards the pillow and blinked slowly. " As much as you can...forget about it."

" Forget that until you came here, you only knew me to be a vicious sociopath?"

Breath escaped her mouth in a tired sigh as she laid back down on the bed. " Is that what you would call me too? Or do you have a prettier curse for me?"

He can't help the snarl that came over his lips." He forced you into a mating bond. He had you submitting to his whims. To say that he is unworthy of your bond would be restraint on my part."

Spock checked his sudden flare of aggression. It wasn't her he was upset with. The terrifying thought he tried not entertain rubbed against him. Just what was happening to his Nyota? How was she faring?

She was just as strong as the one currently lying in his bed but she knew only the sweetness of him. Witnessing what the lesser version of himself had done to this Uhura had him aching with an urge of violence.

Given the chance I will wring his throat myself...for touching this Uhura and making her do...such defiling things. And for my Uhura, I will kill him, he thought, his lip still curled above his teeth.

" He's protected me since I went onboard." Nyota's voice cut in. She was quiet but there was nothing but the hum of the engines to compete with her.

" Kirk probably would have gunned for me but even that clown knew I was too strong willed and smart for us to be a thing. No, I wouldn't have lasted long as his woman but I never had the chance to worry. From the moment I got onboard Spock had his eye on me. And...you, I mean, he never looked away when I caught him staring. You do that here so I know...I just know that you were always drawn to me. Just like I felt."

She rolled onto her side, still facing him and closed her eyes. Spock couldn't help but admire her. Black shadowed her body in the dim star light fogging in through the nearest port hole. Here was a Nyota whose beauty was best seen in the darkness. Away from the ship's bright alpha shift lighting, she was soft and warm and delicate. He wished that she could see it.

" Don't." she huffed.

Spock stiffened. " Do not...what?"

" Don't make my life seem so cut and dry. When you look at me and my Spock, you do so in black and white but there's so much gray there. I know he loves me just as I-"

She bit her lip and her eyes opened into sleepy semicircles. " It isn't easy to have someone you care about there because love makes you weak. It makes you vulnerable and careless and that makes you a target. It makes the one you care about a target."

Spock shifted on the couch in the face of her light reprimande. What he felt was mercy, was poison to her, at least in her line of thinking. " But how is it that you can care for someone who treats you as he does?"

Nyota licked her bottom lip and readjusted her head on the pillow. " He made sure his love made me strong. He made sure to keep me sharp. He kept me on edge and he kept an eye on me. He made me safe, in that way that he did because he cared."

Spock blinked rapidly at the thought of it and reviewed what he knew of her Spock. From what he saw of him, 'he' had made their bond one of resolute discipline.

When that Spock held his Nyota, it was with the knowledge that either one could hurt the other. They made love with lights on and weapons at the ready, in case they were ambushed. He edged his pleasure with pain so that neither would not yearn for anything sweeter. He kept his ka'tra distant from the peace that logic had to offer so his bloodlust would not be tempered.

There he maintained his monster and trained hers as well. He had found a balance, however precarious, within the terror of their universe. It unnerved and astounded him.

Her soft voice broke his concentration. " I want some water."

Spock gazed towards her and sensed the empty glass before him on the coffee table. Ever the scientist, Spock tested a theory he had just formulated.

He rose from the couch with the glass in hand. Back at his desk Spock refilled it and called her over. " Here."

Nyota shifted and rolled off the bed to start walking towards him.

" On your hands and knees." he commanded. His dropped his voice an octave, hoping it would illicit a reaction.

Nyota instantly froze and dropped to the position, in an ease that amazed him. Surely she would have protested as the strong-willed woman he knew her to be? And yet she slinked towards him with the grace of a lioness.

Even more astounding was her placement before him, legs folded beneath her with her rump on her heels. She gazed up towards him, with nothing more than a sense of anticipation with what he would do or say next.

He felt his next action would be important. It was something that would let her know that he understood her now.

Spock took the glass in hand, lowered down into a crouch. He hid his mind away and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. Slowly he raised the glass and put the rim to her lips. " Open." he said firmly.

Nyota parted her lips obediently and waited once more. He continued to hide his nerves and mild distaste of what they were doing and tilted the glass further.

She drank deep and slow, closing her eyes and her mouth as she had her fill. A stray riverlet of water trailed down her chin and drew Spock's attention. When she did not move to wipe it away, he knew it was another test. Again he silenced the broadcast of his telepathy and gently cleared the cool, fat droplet hanging under her face with the hand that was at her chin.

A swelling heat of pleasure and assurance warmed his fingers as he went on to caress her cheek. I

t felt strange to touch Mirror Nyota like this. He was reducing them to a primitive rendition of a Vulcan courtship while in heat. He gave as well as demanded, treasuring her like some loyal beast. As unsettled as he felt Nyota's mind seemed much more at ease. Her focus was solely on him and in it she felt an affirmation.

Even now she was indulging in the feeling of his fingers on her face. Their texture, pressure, and heat; everything was weighed and savored in a way Spock had never seen his Nyota do. Perhaps the sharing of his own observations and mind had been a distraction for this Nyota?

Spock didn't have much time to dwell on it. He felt her face tilt within his hand. The magnetic pull of her psi points tugged at his fingertips as she nuzzled her check closer to his palm.

An offer? A temptation. Not one of seduction but one of connection. She wanted him this way. His Vulcan way. He knew instinctively that the other Spock would have craved such relations with Nyota in that world just as he did here. And here she was, literally placing her mind at his fingertips.

All he had to do was sink in and pull her up and they would merge-

" Spock. Sanoi…"

He swallowed down the groan rising up in his throat at the plaintive sound of her voice. Vulnerable. She was finally making herself vulnerable to him. He shouldn't but could he refuse her now?

His index finger twitched with a hungry tick. Sink, sink down, sink deep, sink in, melt and meld…

The hopeful glint in Nyota's eyes started to dim and replace itself with cool aloofness again when she startled with a gasp.

They were still in the room, still dressed as they were but inside the safety of his mind, away from cold, volitive maw of space. Spock held Nyota in his lap and cradled his body around hers.

" Thank you." she whispered.

AOS! Nyota

Pride had always been her biggest vice.

At its worse her arrogance that could easily rival that of Kirk's. Spock hadn't helped. She had snagged him and he made her feel like the only female in the galaxy.

If she wanted something for herself, she worked until she got it. It was never a question of if, just how long until she finally got what she deserved. She said deserved because she always paid for whatever it was with the theoretical blood, sweat and tears.

But she did not deserve any of this. Not this Mirror Spock or his perversion of her. The first spar for her freedom had been hard to take. She actually thought she could trip him up again. That had been her first mistake. Thinking that he didn't find her as tempting as she found her possible freedom was the next. Underestimating his prowess had been her last.

They had their match inside of her quarters. Fair ground he said as he cleared the furniture away and against the walls. Once nothing lay between them, Spock stripped off his shirt. A long, muscled torso riddled with pale silver scars was revealed to her. He flexed and rolled shoulders. Nyota swallowed. He looked larger out of his tunic and undershirt.

He eyed her back as they both removed their socks and boots. She didn't care for it but she figured once she won, she would be rid of his hungry eyes.

He laid his weapons on the couch along the side wall. She noted it was the wall furthest from the door. She wondered if it was on purpose but he was striding back to face her with a dark look on his face. " Puk-tor. ( Fight me)"

Nyota drew a deep breath and dropped into a fighting stance. " With pleasure."

When it was clear he wouldn't move until she did, Nyota bobbed towards him with a series of punches.

Spock knocked each offensive strike in stride. " I said fight. Not play."

" Annoying bastard." She went in hard mixing jabs with sidekicks. Spock blocked the punches and sidestepped the kicks. " Fight me!"

Nyota gave him everything that she had then and to her dismay she had yet to land a single blow. She stumbled back, panting at the air and shooting him a venomous look.

What form of hell was this? Fighting Vulcans was a universal bad idea. Their strength was one thing, being one of the more able-bodied aliens in the alpha- quadrant. Paired with their telepathy they could be though often opted not to be lethal. She wouldn't consider sparring her Spock even on a good day and his worst which made fighting this psycho version of him the stupidest thing she had ever agreed to.

She stood straighter and wince. Her strength had waned and he had yet to start breathing hard. If anything he looked like a overstimulated cat ready to close in on its latest eye-catching obsession. She groaned when she spotted his erection and glared at him. " Just let me go already."

He smirked and flexed the muscles along his chest in a way that should not have wishing for him to do it again. " Tired already K'diwa? That is well enough. Let me put you to bed."

When he lifted a single eyebrow in query she cursed. " Fuck you!"

" Soon." he drawled with a smile. A smug Vulcan smile came over his face as she renewed her attack with a frustrated yell.

He watched and calculated while she did, studying Nyota as she came at him. He held her off with no offensive pursuit until she paused a beat too long.

In that moment Spock surged forward in a near blur across the room, swatting away her defensive hand posturing. A surprised look crossed her face as he swept her feet from out under her. She gave an umph as her back collided with the floor and lost her breath in the process. She had to get up but he had knocked her dizzy and breathless.

She had barely gasped for air when Spock followed with a finger jabbed to her right bicep. An electric sting ran through her arm and had it dropping uselessly to the ground. She struggled to think of what he had done before it hit her. A nerve pinch! Terror gripped Nyota as it laid unresponsive to her insistent commands to move.

Spock rose to stand above her as she panicked with what to do. Eyes narrowed with assessment, Spock slowly licked at his teeth. " Do you concede?"

She answered with a hard kick at his knee. He dodged it easily with a side step and grinned. " Of course not. That's the mate I know."

He went onto his hands and knees and crawled over her. " Nyota."

He said her name as if he were mid-orgasm, long, drawled syllables that ended with a tight ah. Desperation had Nyota defending from the floor with one arm as he pressed his hips to hers. She couldn't kick him at this angle and couldn't free herself with just the single arm. She needed that to at least fend him off.

But even that was short lived. He took her blows with a tempered face and advanced upon her. Already shirtless, Spock started to undo the thick fabric belt bound around his waist. The rest of that exchange ended with Nyota fighting Spock's hands as best she could before she fought succumbing to the pleasure she found on his lok.

The second loss was harder, mostly because it had been more difficult to fight Spock in general. She realized Spock had been holding back the first time.

With each launch of her limbs, Nyota saw him move to evade it just in time. A quickly as she was going she was sure the pair of them looked like choreographed actors. He dodged and ducked about her like a snake would a mongoose, flashing intense looks whenever she cursed from an unconnected hit. And like a serpent, this sinister Vulcan would land strikes that would bring Nyota to her knees. His blows were nothing to wound or maim. Just painful reminders that he was viewing their heated grappling as a kind of foreplay.

This day however, she can't lose. Not again, not to him, not in that perverse way. His victories over her are ones of her yelling in frustration and wailing in ecstasy. Nyota couldn't have been more conflicted for the latter.

Each time Spock claimed her body as his prize it unnerved her. His face remained blank, save a feral slack-jaw scowl but his skin burned Nyota with a desire he left unchecked. His wild lust gave birth to her own. Nyota did not want to feel anything for him but she had in those literal moments of weakness.

There was a yearning in her belly, a biological rise that she wished to be above. She couldn't ignore the small part of her that had relished the way he would fuck her. He would take her as he could but often times he would bind her. It made Nyota feel as if she were some wild beast that he had sought to tame, tamping her fire enough so that he wouldn't get singed.

That second day he'd set his mouth all over her as if consuming her alive. She writhed underneath him in stuttering gasps as he wrenched out one peak after another. And once her voice was nearly gone and set to work with his lok.

Loathing ate at her as her body was set on a lust-riddled fire. This Spock in the short time that she had been stuck here had brought Nyota to the end of herself. She could not have that again.

Today he waited for her on the floor in the den. He sat cross-legged on the rug with nothing but a low hanging pair of slacks to save his modesty. The low table behind him framed his glorious chiseled physique. The toned build of his torso sat on full display to her eyes. It had a few new scars thanks to her teeth, not that he cared. He almost seemed to be showcasing them.

On her approach he slowly opened his eyes and regarded her. " Nyota. Are you ready?"

She felt naked under his gaze as it roved down her frame but she wouldn't dare shrink away from him. " I don't want to fight you. You need to let me go."

His stare went from hot to cold as he took in her words. He leaned forward with a somewhat menacing look on his face." Why should I?"

Nyota grit her teeth and balled her fist at her side. She dropped her gaze and looked down at her body. In her universe it had left countless people unconcious. In this place, however, her martial arts had a steep learning curb. Spock sat patiently waiting for her reply as pride whittled away. " I need to go because I can't survive here long term."

" On what basis to you concluded this?" he asked gruffly.

Nyota pursed her lips and then rushed out with her answer. " Everyone is here is out for my blood. I've got more enemies than friends; I'm not use to that. It feels like I've had to fight every single day, multiple times a day and for what? Just to do the same power plays all over again? I started off okay in the beginning but I'm tired here Spock. I want to go home. I'm weak."

" You are not weak."

His voice was hard, almost angry. She looked up and found his face looked no different than it had when she first looked down. She frowned and pressed him. " You're entitled to your opinion. And I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. I-"

He rose to his feet and rolled his shoulders. " You. Are. Not. Weak. In our bond, you are a reflection of me. Am I weak, Nyota?"

Nyota bit the inside of her cheek and met his gaze firmly. " No."

Spock slowly exhaled through his nose, deciding on something. He spread his arms in a wide welcome for her to come forward. " Fight me, K'diwa. If you want to be stronger, I will make you stronger."

No. Spock wasn't letting her leaving. He was going to just keep up with this whole charade. Even calling her beloved as if he could have the wherewithal to love someone.

Nyota swallowed and turned away from him. She heard him step closer. " Something troubles you?"

Nyota let out an exasperated sigh and threw up her arms. " Have you listened to anything that I said?! Yeah something troubles me; You! This ship! This insane world! It's horrible and you called me-."

She stopped ranting and shook her head. " I just wanna go. Let me go. Please."

She turned back towards him to see the hard glint in his eyes. The mirror Spock crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head thoughtfully. " You didn't finish your earlier sentence. Called you what? K'diwa."

Nyota gestured with her arm as if she were tossing the idea of such a thing away. " Yeah. Don't."

" You are my beloved." he said firmly.

" Isn't your Nyota your beloved?" she pushed.

He straightened and dropped his arms back at his side." You are mine. Both of you."

He stepped closer, nearly close enough to reach out and touch her arm. She looked back at him and felt the bond between them flare in their observation of one another. His eyes flickered with the heat of it as he pinned her with a look of determination. " If you worry about your strength then you need only ask your bondmate to make you stronger. I am bound to you."

" What? Out of duty?" she snapped irritatedly.

He slowly shook his head and squared his stance into his preferred k'a'sumi style. The deadly arts. " No. I do so out of love."