Finally more than a tease at Khan! I usually try to do a chapter a day, but had to miss yesterday as I went to see the movie again to make sure I was familiar enough with the character to do him justice. Somehow after three times seeing it my room mate just isn't as eager to join me! Anyways, enjoy!

Jupiter Station 2258, 67.

"Doctor Swan."

John spoke her name before he looked up, seated on a cushioned cot attached to the wall. The entire cell was white, including the clothes he had been given. It made the darkness of his hair and the world beyond the clear wall more sharply contrasted. Though she was kept on a tight leash as to what information about the station she was given – she didn't even know where they were – simply from the time it took to reach the cell she could tell they were in the belly of the facility.

Evelette paused as the door slid shut behind her, the silver pane on the wall flashing a red light to let her that the door was now locked.

Despite what she'd agreed with Marcus, and the prompting of the slowly assembling system team the admiral was constructing for her, she'd refused to have John given any kind of sedative. Considering how his body could bring itself back from the brink of total ruin, she had no idea how much sedative would need to be administered to keep him under – or if there was anything beyond a phaser capable of knocking him out without killing him.

Shooting her patient didn't seem the right course of action when attempt to build a positive rapport. "Hello again. How are you feeling?"

He lifted a brow. "Constrained."

She moved across the gap between them, setting her data pad aside and drawing a pen out from the pocket of her lab coat. She moved in front of him, lifting the pen to his eye level. "Follow this for me please."

He did as instructed, watching the pen as she moved it back and forth.

"You're in uniform now." He noted, not bothering to look at the blue shirt she had on underneath the lab coat. "I assume this means we'll be seeing each other regularly."

She nodded, picking up the data pad from beside him and tucking the pen away, typing her password and placing her finger to be scanned when prompted on the device. Satisfied, it opened up the new wealth of information. The blood she had collected was still in the primary stages of testing, but there was plenty more information about the man now than when she'd first seen his file.

"I'm surprised you elected to continue, considering my imprisonment." John watched her hands moving over the device.

"I hope you're not looking for someone to show the innermost workings of your wounded soul. I specialize in the brain, but more the physical bit." She gave him a small teasing smile he didn't return. She lowered the data pad, meeting his gaze. "You're not going to be here forever. Marcus is paranoid, but he doesn't commit evil simply for the sake of evil. Show him you have a use and that he can trust you, and he'll let you out of this room."

"Such freedom." John rasped, eyes narrowing slightly. "It's a wonder your bones don't crack under the weight of it."

She shrugged. He had a right to be in a foul mood – she imagined she'd be behaving exactly the same if Marcus was keeping her locked up. The restrains on her life irked her enough – being confined to one room would have driven her to homicidal innuendo to. "If it makes you feel better, I wasn't given a choice about coming her either."

"Yet you choose to remain." He noted coolly. "Why?"

"May I?" She gestured to beside him. When he made no indication, she rolled her eyes and sat down anyway. She held the data pad in front of him, showing the scan of his organs. Orange light ignited in small sections, then spread rapidly over them to illustrate cellular reparation. "Your cells heal themselves. It's not a matter of stem cells repurposing themselves to replenished damaged tissue, you cells heal themselves. It's unheard of – it could revolutionize modern science, not to mention the lives it could save. I have a niece, paralyzed from the waist down. If her body could do what yours does – she could run with other kids her age. She could walk into her graduation, her wedding."

"So you intend to study me." He seemed entirely unaffected by the information.

"Nothing intrusive, you have my word." She lowered the data pad into her lap, looking at him imploringly.

"And what is that worth, Doctor? Your word."

Vancouver 2259, 45.

"I appreciate your haste." His voice was amused. "Another few moments, and you could have spared your security staff serious injury."

She stood swiftly, snapping round to face him. He wore civilian clothes, standing so his face was more shadowed than the rest of his body. His hands were in his pockets, but she could see a dark spray misted on the bottom of his coat.

"I hope you don't intend to insult my intelligence by pretending Marcus sent you here." Her voice shook slightly.

He tilted his head, moving over to look out at the city. "Are you frightened, Doctor Swan?"

"I suppose." Dishonesty seemed unwise. "Why are you here?"

He didn't answer, continuing to watch the tiny people below, rushing to get out of the weather amidst flashing cars and traffic lights. Her eyes went to the door beyond him.

"Ill advised."

It was a warning, but he said it like simple fact.

"We both know who would reach it first."

"Why are you here, John?" She tried again.

There was no avoiding whatever course of action he had decided was favourable, she could see that. She couldn't outrun him, her security was likely a bloody smear on the tiles, and at a time of his choosing, he could crush the life from her pathetically struggling body. All she could do was force him into action.

She moved around the chairs, going to his side and peeking down at the city. "Congratulations on your liberation. Freedom isn't what you'd expect, is it? Less… free."

"Liberation suggests I had help, which as we both know I did not." He said crisply.

Letting out a long breath, she lifted her eyes to beyond the buzz of humanity, to the thrashing sea beyond the city.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

"This must be strange for you." She realized aloud. "The world changes a lot in three hundred years."

"Less than one might expect." He said indifferently. "How is your niece? Enjoying the benefits of your labour?"

She stiffened.

"Poor show. That's your weakness – you're incapable of suppressing your emotions, it makes you disappointingly easy to manipulate. I need something from you, and now all I need to receive it is apply a subtle pressure – perhaps her spinal cord? Relax, Doctor, I have no intentions to harm the child, provided you give me what I want."

"Which is?"

"Liberation."

She frowned, lifting a hand to touch the glass. "But you're free – you've already escaped."

"I've escaped, but a certain device hampers any sense of… freedom."

Eve hesitated. "I don't know much about electronics."

"You are not required to. The device is implanted in my parietal lobe. It's of my own design – intended to deactivate the host's ability to move, or simply deactivate them at the discretion of the chip's operator. I have the mechanism the chip responds to, however I'm incapable of deactivating it myself, naturally."

"You've got to be joking." She looked to him in alarm.

John faced her. "Ha, ha, ha," he said dryly. "We will need to leave immediately."

"Leave – where are we going?" She spluttered, instinctively looking to the door.

"Considering the devices potential to transmit my location, we'll need to relocate to where I've placed the controls before Starfleet taps into the system and finds me in your very poorly protected office."

"I'm not a surgeon!" She cried, taking a step back. "John – I'm not qualified to crack open your skull and go fishing for some plastic chip."

"You won't need to – a simply puncture to the skull fracturing the chip will suffice, my cells will do the rest of your work for you. I have all the equipment you require. Now, shall we go or must I issue another pointless threat to recripple the child?"

Eve tried to swallow and winced as her dry throat strained. "I don't suppose I have time to pack?"

He examined her with a look that answered the question. She smiled weakly. "Well, let's go crack open your skull then. Not as if I had better plans for my future than being branded a enemy of Starfleet."