Chapter 3

'OhGodOhGodOhGod!' Bones was in a blind panic, cowering up against a nearby create, knees pulled close to his chest and rocking back and forth, in a manner unlike either of his personalities. 'What if they turn into those monsters? What if they don't? Oh God what have I done?' When they woke up, if they woke up, and they discovered what he'd done they were going to hate him for turning them into freaks, or worse, they were going to try and eat him because they'd become mutant beasts and he'd have to kill them before they could spread the disease.

'Oh God… What have I done?'

Memories of Olduvai played through his head, the strange noises, flashes of movement, blood curdling fear of the unknown, the grief of remembering over and over again the cries of his parents, the need to protect Sam, Dr. Carmac sticking out of the nano-wall with his twitching monstrous arm, Sarge hell bent on killing everything and everyone, firing through the glitching nano-wall, Duke being killed –only he and Sam left - the wall finally solidifying only to have his bullet bounce back and hit him, Sam injecting him with C-24, darkness, then storming through the UAC complex killing every monster he came across. Sarge…

Two hundred years of running and hiding across the face of the Earth, only able to stop because of a magnetic storm that had passed over the UAC headquarters and had wiped their database clean including any reference to one genetically altered and superior John 'Reaper' Grimm. Now he had quite possibly sentenced himself, Jim and Spock –if they survived- to that life again, hunted down like animals to be studied under lab conditions.

After the love and friendship these two had given him, how could they forgive him for paying them back by turning them into creatures that will be hunted down and pulled apart molecule by molecule, chromosome by chromosome? He had to get out of the room; he couldn't watch their disgusted faces as they discovered what and who he was and what he'd done to them. Their bond wouldn't survive this. They won't trust him anymore; he would be alone again.

He had thought himself dead, logic had told him that he was to die; the amount of blood he had surely lost should have killed him, even Doctor McCoy would have had trouble saving him, even if he was taken directly to sickbay.

Spock cracked an eye open to survey his surroundings, still in the storage room they had used for cover, definitely not the infirmary. 'Fascinating, I am still alive?' he closed his eye again and made a quick examination of his body, noticing that he was completely uninjured. 'Fascinating.' He had been 100% sure he had been hit at least twice.

He moved to push himself up and his hand slipped in a pool of liquid, he looked down, blood, green blood, it was defiantly his blood, yet he was uninjured. He noticed at the edge of the thick green pool was another thick liquid, red, human –Jim.

Jim's yellow command shirt was almost completely red with blood and he was not breathing, dead. Spock shuffled over to him and stroked the side of his face, taking no note of the smear of blood he left there as a familiar tingle passed through his hand and up his spine, to be felt at the base of his brain. Jim was alive, but not breathing, something was off. With that amount of blood that was so obviously Jim's, he should be dead, but their link was still intact, humming quietly through his skin, but Jim was showing no other signs of life. He opened Jim's mouth to make sure his air way was clear, pressed his lips to Jim's and started breathing for him.

There was a ragged gasp as Jim started breathing on his own again; relief flooded Spock as Jim became conscious. But then he noticed McCoy's absence and he became concerned again.

'Good God, what was I drinking?' the pounding in Jim's head was nearly unbearable, he winced and Spock must be nearby as he felt him flood his head with soothing pulses. He sighed as thinking became slightly easier.

"Spock, what happened?"

"I am unsure," came the soft reply. He opened his eyes slightly to find Spock leaning over him; his usual mask had slipped to show his worry.

"What was I drinking last night?" He groaned as his head started pounding again, then he realized it was Spock's head aching so badly, "No, sorry, what were you drinking last night?"

"I do not believe either of us consumed alcohol last night, we seem to have been seriously injured and have bled profusely, however I cannot find the wounds on either of our bodies."

"Why Spock, were you checking me out while I was unconscious?' Jim teased, with a huge smile plastered across his features. All he got for it was a slight tilt of the head. He sighed and patted Spock's knee, "C'mon, help me up and we'll go find Bones. This silence is starting to scare me." Sure enough, now that it had been pointed out, the complete lack of sound in the complex felt almost palpable, painful even, and down right eerie.

He held out his hand and was taken by surprise as he was thrown halfway across the room when Spock had only lightly tugged at his arm.

"What the hell was that for?" he exclaimed.

Spock just looked down at his hands, confusion flitting across his face, "I did not intentionally do that Jim, I used the same amount of force I would usually use to lift you, I was sure I had restrained my strength sufficiently..." he trailed of as he looked up to where Jim was standing, only just noticing the shattered boxes between them."Jim, did your vector take you through those creates?"

Kirk looked at the destruction that lay between the two of them, and then returned his gaze back to his lover, astonishment clear on his features, "I believe you're correct, Mr. Spock,"

There was silence for a moment, then, "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Bones had heard Jim's outburst, he was only down the hall making sure no one would find them, and the confusion and anger present in the captain's voice sent chills skittering down the doctor's spine... God, they've managed to realize faster then he thought they would. Should he go back and explain? Maybe he should just go his separate way, mail his resignation to Starfleet from halfway across the quadrant spend the next 80 odd years heading off to the farthest reaches of the Delta quadrant, there were no plans in the foreseeable future to begin exploration there.

"C'mon Spock, let's see if we can find Bones, he can probably figure out why you can throw me halfway across a room with barely a flick of the wrist."

'Holy shit! Normal run of the mill Vulcans are close to three times stronger than humans, they can crumple a monitor like a sheet of paper without being suped up on C-24, God knows what our friendly neighbourhood Vulcan can do now!'

He really needed to go back, help them both adjust to the enhancements brought on by C-24, he couldn't just let a super Vulcan and an enhanced man-child like Jim loose on the Universe, the chaos they would make! They would rupture stars in their birth-nebulas, end diplomacy with new and unknown races before they could begin, offend the honour of every newly-discovered species for the rest of time! But what were they going to think when they learn what he'd done, what he'd done out of selfishness. He could have saved either in the conventional ways –but under fire, stressed, and with only enough time to save one…he hadn't been thinking straight, and he couldn't there was no way he could have chosen between them if he'd tried.

He slid down the wall he had been leaning against, what should he do? Run or help? His decision was made for him when Spock and Jim rounded the corner and spotted him curled up against the wall sobbing, head leaning back, knees held close to his chest and tears running down his cheeks, with little chokes of breath breaking the silence.