Note: So for those who skipped last week's gratuitous torture scene, here's what you need to know. Julian's junk and feet are a bit worse for the wear and he received a nasty gash to his cheek. Thankfully he was saved by Molly, Yoshi, and Jadzia as a Kironide mad Garak skittered into the darkness of an adjacent tunnel. That being said, the action is going to start ramping up again and a warning for more minor character death. We'll also be headed back to Indigo soon where Worf patiently waits sipping cold prune juice on a covered porch. Anyhoo, thank you all who continue to read and support me. C&C is always welcome!


Garak exhales sharply as he retreats further back. His movements are slow- without a light the possibility of encountering something that could cause injury or worse increases exponentially the further he goes. He also is close enough to hear the sound of the water Julian had mentioned and the last thing he needs is to drown or be pulled asunder by some prehistoric sea creature left alone to evolve into some highly efficient killing machine after so many years of isolation. He fingers the gun. Of course that's likely what they want- that having rescued the traitor and chased off the foul villain of this story that you'll wander lost in these caves, doomed to die some undignified, miserable starving death, perhaps driven mad by one of the fungi consumed in a fit of desperation, perhaps poisoned by some ancient eyeless creature in your sleep. Or maybe in final act of despair you take the gun and place it in your own mouth before pulling the trigger? Yes, then the dear doctor won't need to sully his hands again, will he? He'll be able to report back to Tain that the problem has been erased and then claim his prize quite prettily. But oh, Julian, you don't know Tain like I do, if you believe he isn't already working a way to double cross you as well. It may very well be that he intended for the both of us to destroy each other in some tragic lover's altercation.

Ah, what a story we have here then, betrayal, action, and even a few smatterings of sticky sex stuff. Yes. All the trappings of some vulgar Westworld novella. But if I'm to be destroyed, Julian, then let it not be in vain. No. Rest assured, I'll take you down with me. Garak smiles nastily in the dark, retreating back again as he calls that map to mind, already placing the pieces like a game of Kotra, see that opening wide, back near the entrance. He knows how to get back- it will be a longer trip, but he feels reborn with purpose, and knows exactly how he'll see it through. The scalpel is still close at hand and he's careful to roll it back in a handkerchief into of one of his pockets. It will take a bit longer, but he already knows what he has to do to achieve his goal. All of them gone, all of them erased, and then Tain will have no choice but to see his value, to see the grievous miscalculation he'd made in ever trusting a human over his best operative. Garak hunkers down low, moving quickly. Yes, he's definitely going to go for the weakest link first.


"Not that it's any of my business to be judging your sex life, mate, but if yer comin' home all bloodied up like that perhaps yer not doin' something quite right." Yoshi winks up at him and Julian fixes the young man with his best glower. It was a stunning impersonation of his father and Julian is thankful that looking down, the resemblance isn't near close enough to be unsettling. His hair and eyes are dark, but that thick mass atop his head sports an unruly perm that he's made little attempt to tame, half falling into his eyes as he gently dabs at Julian's feet. He's slim like Keiko- like Julian really- and wears a bandana around his neck that he claims he received as a gift from a woman in the south. He's clean shaven, though Julian knows from his teenage laments that it's more a matter of being almost completely unable to decent grow facial hair rather than choice. Julian can see the black eye he sports now, along with the dried blood around his mouth where his lip had been split. He can see the long brown jacket- impractical thing that it's always been- ripped in a few places quite dirty as it dusts the floor.

Yoshi has discarded a set of fingerless leather gloves as he works, his black trousers seeming to soak up more of the dust as he gently dabs the alcohol over the tops of Julian's feet. Julian's face was tended to first, and the powder in his kit was fortunately enough to staunch the bleeding. He wasn't particularly thrilled with the thick gauze stuck to his face, but Yoshi's presentation of a new pair of spectacles was more than enough to make up for it. And at last, it explained his separation from the group, Molly's guess of him meeting with a date was met with mock hurt as Yoshi proudly declared that he was meeting a friend of a friend to see that Julian wouldn't have to worry about his eyes frightening the locals into more tall tales of the desert ghosts. Julian wears them happily, even as the pain of Yoshi's ministrations continue. Along with the buzz of banter around him.

"Or maybe he's doing something quite right," Jadzia chimes in with that remark tossed over her shoulder. She continues with the wire where Julian left off. Julian hisses, seeing spots dancing in front of his eyes with that burning.

"You're lucky mom's back a ways taking samples," Molly interjects, sitting cross legged looking at a map she'd drawn from Nog's rendering. "One look at you and I don't think 'Uncle Garak' would be making the trip back with us."

"Uncle Ga-yaa haa haa…" Julian feels the burning of the alcohol as Yoshi moves to dab his inner thighs. He nearly swallows his tongue as some of the alcohol runs down further. Yoshi sighs and unties his bandana, quickly rolling it up.

"Think you might need this," He offers it to Julian who gives a shaky nod, sweating and pale. He looks like he may very well vomit as he dutifully opens his mouth. "You know, I haven't met this Garak fellow, but I can't say as he's left the best impression so far."

"He's like your typical Cardie," Molly answers then pauses thoughtfully. "if a Cardie grew up in a circus."

"Bet he's hung like a-" Julian yells a heated interjection around the cloth and Jadzia laughs as both Molly and Yoshi look in her direction.

"He says that's none of your business and this is not a conversation for children," she translates with a smirk.

"Children he says. Nice. Won't be having any more of those with the number the Cardie did on the old Mr. Johnson here." Julian's eyes widen in alarm and as much as he'd been reluctant to survey at the damage, he cranes his head just in time to see the splash of the alcohol. His eyes roll back into his head as he nearly loses his voice with the burning pain.

"Kidding, sorry right… Helluva thing to kid a fellow about, I know." He yelps as Molly smacks the back of his head and quickly works to clean and bandage the delicate area. Julian is sure that's he's gone in and out at least a few times as Yoshi continues to work. At last he slumps forward in relief, breathing hard when Yoshi informs him that he's finished and can finally have the dignity of putting his clothes back on.

Julian still has no idea how he's going to manage walking. As Yoshi blandly informed him, the soles of his feet rather resemble something that's been put through a cheese grater. Even now with the bandages, the thought of putting serious weight, of walking with that sore skin, hardly appeals to him. Still, he may need to suck it up and try. They need to capture Garak and get him away from the Kironide as soon as possible and then get back to the ship. Julian doesn't know how long the effects will still remain in Garak's system, but at least, he supposes grimly, they have the rope to wrap him up as tightly as they need to. In the worst case, he trusts that Molly can take him down quickly and carefully with the crossbow without casualty.

"Molly, you said that Keiko's back near the entrance?" Julian looks worried as he tries to stand, legs buckling, the pain lancing through his feet. He hisses, trying to grit through it and Yoshi is there lowering him back to seated, plopping down in more of the red Kironide dust. He huffs irritated. "I know I can't say anything about leaving her alone. She can take care of herself and God knows I wasn't expecting Garak to lose his mind down here but I don't like her being there by herself… what's so funny?" He sees the three of them look at each other half smirking, Molly laughing behind her hand.

"Oh you weren't there, Julian," she explains standing up. "We caught up with 'em, right. We saw the two of them standing there not even looking out. They were fiddling with some kinda gun box-"

"Phaser."

"Fine, phaser... know it all. But they weren't even looking and mom was getting mad seeing Yoshi tied up like a hog saying they weren't supposed to rough him up like that."

"Dunno how she expected to them to catch me without getting a little rough. No harm no foul but-"

"But I'm telling Julian-"

"How mom rushed in there and whacked the guy out cold with her bag. Pow, right in the face. Think she mighta knocked a few years off his life while she was at it."

Molly glares at him.

"This is why you don't get to ride in the big ship." Yoshi blithely ignores her making a mock swing with Julian's bag.

"Why is he bleeding?!" he screams impersonating Keiko in a falsetto and Julian can't help but smile at that. He shakes his head, still keeping a careful ear out for Garak. He doesn't hear anything and looks to Jadzia.

"How's it coming with that? We can't set it off until we're sure everyone's clear. Especially now that we're all covered in this dust. But it's better that it's in place. Once we've gotten Garak ah… situated we won't want any delays. Speaking of, what about the two that were guarding you? I'm afraid the others didn't make it so it might be em… a bit of a delicate situation."

"It was an accident," Molly answers with a tense shrug. "Right? I mean… if they didn't make it… it couldn't be helped. Dad's always saying you can't cry over tough choices. Just learn from it and keep going." She puts the map away. "We better get moving." Jadzia appears from behind the second container just at that moment brushing the dust off her pants. She exhales hard, wiping the sweat off her brow.

Julian looks at her concerned.

"God, I completely forgot. Jadzia. You're not a human."

"I'm glad you noticed. Sometimes I forget that myself." He notices that she's started biting her nails absently as she looks at him.

"How are you holding up? Has the dust been causing any ill effects?" She smiles at him thinly seeming to just realize that absent gesture herself.

"Remember when we did the zhian-tara years ago? When you all helped me communicate with the other hosts of the symbiont?" Julian nods looking at her curiously.

"Well… it's kinda like that… in my head right now." Her smile is tight and it seems that she barely stops herself from biting her nails again. Julian blinks a few times surprised, amazed at how composed she appears given the circumstances.

"Right well… s'posse we better get a move on before it gets any worse."

"Don't worry. I only have one murderous impulse in my head and I think I've gotten him tightly under wraps." Julian doesn't look entirely convinced and he's about to try and stand again when Yoshi holds him back.

"Whoa, easy there cowboy, we're about to settle this." He looks at Molly, and Julian sees them shaking their fists at each other. "Best out of three?"

"Really," he protests, "I can manage. I just need a-" He notices they're not even listening as they continue the game of rock, paper, scissors.

"Aw c'mon, I know I saw you cheat!"

"S'only cheating if someone sees you, Molls. Quark's third rule." Yoshi smirks at her and she slaps his hand.

"Fine, but you're carrying him to the ship."

"I'm injured!"

"Save yer complainin fer the trees," Molly affects Miles' voice as she sticks her tongue out and Julian sighs, still seeing the both of them in his mind a good fifteen years younger.

"I suppose it's for the best Miles isn't here, he'd probably want to string up poor Garak and wear him like a hat." Julian stares, blinking a few times dumbly as Molly kneels down and motions for him to climb on her back. "Oh you cannot be serious."

"Yeah, we got it, poor Uncle Garak, yeah… Get on," Yoshi shoos him like he would a stray cat he's trying to coax out of a try. "I'll help." Julian glowers darkly in return as he climbs onto Molly's back with the extra assist.

"This is ridiculous."

"I think the two of you look adorable." Jadzia beams, leaving Julian thankful that onworld they can't easily access instant photographs. He makes a rather strangled yelp as Molly stands, bouncing him a few times to resituate his legs.

"Steady now, you know how those old bones are." Yoshi gins in the face of Julian's glower, looking into the dark passage on the other end of the cave soberly for just a moment watching. He looks back down at the red Kironide dust. "You don't think just a little could hurt?"

"You even think about putting that in your mouth Juriyoshi O'Brien and I'll make sure and tell Miles who really started that shed fire."

"You promised you wouldn't tell him that!"

"Yes, and I spent the entire week helping him rebuild the damn thing too. No, we're just going to have to bring "Uncle Garak" in the good old fashioned way." And pray that no one gets hurt in the meantime…


"You're being ridiculous, Nog!" Dorian Collins stands behind a young man with close cropped black hair, seated on the dirt, hands tied behind his back. Next to him sits another man, taller, with broader shoulders and a tan open face. He's silent, sandy hair falling into his eyes, head resting against his knees looking dazed. Nog stands over them both, glowing as she stops untying the ropes.

"I am not taking any chances with them. Not when we're this close. Once this is over I don't… I don't care where you want to go or what you decide to do. But until then, leave them."

"They're really gone?" The man with the blonde hair asks, or rather says to himself as he looks into to the desert. "All of them.

"I didn't want it to end that way, Laxis. You know that."

"I don't know anything. You asked us to trust you. We dumped the Kironide, we kept the keys just like you wanted. Without asking you anything, Nog. And then you disappeared. When Captain Watters came back to us and said you were planning to sell it after you-"

"And you believed him?!"

"What the l were any of us supposed to believe? A Ferengi disappears after dropping two tons of a priceless element and you know I felt pretty stupid after that!"

"Because they murdered Shepard! At least that's how it seemed. You have no idea... You have no idea the deception that's been pulled off at my expense! I thought you were all dead!" Laxis turns suspiciously to the black haired man who draws up straighter suddenly looking confused.

"What's he talking about, Tam?"

"Captain Watters had instructed us all to keep quiet. I thought that you knew,"

"You were supposed to be dead. All of you. Except for Neem." Nog laughs bitterly and shakes his head. "What's that the Captain said to me once… he'd heard the only thing Ferengi value more than money is their lives. Sometimes not even then. They wanted me to move. To try and destroy it. They knew. All of it. I just… I just needed to this stop. I needed time to think. I couldn't find anyone that I trusted." He looks at Collins who frowns and looks down.

"I guess there still isn't anyone, is there? You think I don't care about the Dominion threat. I've heard you. I can hear better than you all think probably. I know what you were saying that night we discussed what to do with the shipment. Of course they won't come here to Westworld. Why would the Ferengi from Westworld care about the rest of the Alpha Quadrant? And you're right about one thing. There's nothing of strategic value and the planet itself would likely drag every ship out of orbit to crash. But you're wrong. I do care. I didn't join Starfleet for glory or for profit." He looks at the three of them, taking a seat as well. "You know the profit is terrible." Laxis laughs. Collins shifts uneasily.

"You never did say what the Kironide did, Nog. What it does to Ferengi." He shifts, looking away as if considering that the truth may have very may saved such suffering as they face now. It was a question that he wrestled with numerous times in the past, alone, kept up at night while out on the Valiant. There were times that he considered it may very well be the aftereffects of the contact still lingering but-

"It… it nearly drove me insane," He answers softly, not looking at any of them. "It creates these illusions… these auditory hallucinations, these visions. They circle, they repeat, they just… they hammer away loudly so loudly that I cannot even…" He trails off, fists clenched. "The Federation and the Ferengi are allies. I know that. But I also know Section 31… what Doctor Bashir told me of it when I asked it. "For Section 31 there is no line that can't be crossed, no boundary, no morals. Everything is for what they call justice and the information they collect on our allies, on our friends, the plans they have, the contingencies… The thought that anything in those containers could be used against us, I can't risk that. It's too dangerous. I asked Captain Watters to trust me. If he could understand that there were things beyond the Dominion I couldn't talk about but he said it came down from Sloan. For Starfleet, for the Federation, for the badge."

He watches as Collins hesitantly goes to untie Tam again, a wall of silence between them. He watches but he doesn't object.

"And now there are only four of us. Four enemies where there were once eleven comrades." He removed the non functioning COM badge from his uniform and threw it across the rocky ground as if he were skipping a stone.

"Nog!" They all watched as it skipped over the damp rock and down where the water streamed. Collins rose, following it quickly.

"Leave it!" Nog watched her with a sigh, seeing the two men untied looking down rather than at him.

"This is some kind of a mess, isn't it?" Laxis shakes his head. "I don't even know what the l to say to you right now." Nog only barely listens, seeing Collins kneel in the water, peering down into the hole carefully.

"I know what this means to you, Nog. I know what you had to work through, what you had to do to earn it. Just let me... at least let me do this much so I can-"

The shot is a piercing cry that rings out, and they all look, turning frantically to see where it came from. And that's when Nog fixes his attention back on Collins kneeling by that hole in the rock, letting out a keening scream as he sees the blood, the red obscuring whatever of her features remain as the stream runs deep crimson with her blood.