The title of this chapter comes from a novel of the same name by John Walsh.
Just so everyone knows, Weyoun REALLY loses his mind over the loss of his wife.
Chapter Nine
Tears of Rage
He never wanted to let her go, not even when she was taken from him...he wanted to die now and be with her, never mind the fact they both would be cloned again...
Did Borath say that the Founder did this?!
His world had come to an end right then and there.
No, no no NO! The Founder could not have DONE THIS TO US...!
He let go of his beloved Kilana and whirled around to snarl and roar at Borath, who backed away. Weyoun was no longer in control of himself, but then seeing Borath's compassionate and sorrowful face, he softened only to allow an ounce of reason to listen more to the scientist. "The Founder..." was all he could get out.
Borath nodded. "She brought the body to me, blatantly gave way it was all her doing. She said that Kilana was an interference on her part long enough." He shook his head and looked off to the side. "She ordered Kilana's line terminated."
"NOOOO!" Weyoun's body lost control, and he fell down to his knees; both Borath and Dira'tarak were on either side of him, pulling him to his feet, but he fell into Borath's arms, sobbing and clutching him. His mind was swarming with questions: why would the Founder do this to him? To Kilana? Was she really that...cold-hearted enough?
Or maybe she never had a heart.
Maybe THIS was what she had planned all along. She allowed Weyoun to have her least favorite Vorta next to Keevan who was no longer a member because it was for her own amusement, due to the fact she was a god...or was she really a god?
He would be defecting, having a thought like this. What was happening to him?
"I've lost her, Borath," he moaned in despair. "The one I love...gone forever...I will NEVER love again!" He swore to the ceiling, getting all eyes on him, their ambassador who had lost his mate and possibly driven mad. He might as well be mad with grief. What kind of gods do this to their children? Take away their loved ones and happiness? After years of loyal service!
"Weyoun, please, calm down," Borath tried to assure him. "That wasn't all there was, and the Founder never knew of this except myself upon examining the body and saving what I discovered."
He found himself looking up at Borath, who had let him go but allowed the Jem'Hadar to keep Weyoun on his feet. "What is it?" he asked softly, through his tears. Borath's face looked like it was struggling to reveal the most sensitive information that he had to keep from the Female Changeling.
"Kilana was with child."
His vision became out of focus at the shocking revelation. Kilana...she had been... "With...child?" he repeated, barely hearing himself. "We were going to have a baby?" Borath nodded, lips in a tight line. Weyoun was so conflicted with his grieving emotions that he wasn't sure how to take this; Kilana had talked forever about wanting a child that he had doubted was possible for them, feared would interfere with everything, but now he was just learning about this -
"Yes. She was only a month along, but I saved the fetus, preserved it and kept it alive thus far. But because its mother's line will be terminated, it might not survive much longer," Borath said regretfully. He'd loved Kilana like a daughter, cared for her despite the mistakes she might have made, had every ounce of faith in her as Weyoun did, and now he was forced to kill her cloning line. Weyoun wished there was a way he could do the same for him, never mind the Founder not wishing it; he would rather be dead now than live alone and serving MONSTERS.
"But...I'm not going to do it."
Borath was looking at him with fiery determination, then looked at First Dira'tarak. "I'm not going to delete Kilana's line, no matter what it takes. I've dedicated my life not only to the study of psychology and cloning our people, saving every life I could, but to protect those I care most about. Weyoun, I will bring her back, but that means I have to get her as far away from here as I can. First Dira'tarak will have to protect her, and a handful of other soldiers from the Founder, until this war is over, and she will be yours again, with or without the Founder's approval."
By Kilana coming back, that meant they would be together again once the war was over, but that also meant having to keep it all a secret. Weyoun could not see himself sneaking away from the Founder to be with his wife and their surprise of a child; she was always bound to find out sooner or later, but before he could dwell on this or speak any further about it, he was called by Damar to come back to his office, where Dukat had news he considered "good", but it was everything Weyoun had known would happen. His blood was boiling and erupting like lava when he was told that the wormhole was closed, and Chin'toka had indeed been taken by the Federation.
"This is a disaster!"
On the viewscreen, Dukat leaned back and rolled his eyes in exasperation as Weyoun continued to explode with rage. "Federation forces have landed on Cardassian soil, and now you're telling me the wormhole is GONE?! And without any chance of getting reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant!"
"I'm well aware that things didn't quite turn out the way I planned..." If Weyoun was over there right now, he would kill Dukat himself. His mate had been taken from him, and now this! He glared up at Damar for blindly believing in his former commander once again, and look what it cost them ONCE AGAIN. "But I assure you, we still achieved a great victory."
"VICTORY?!" Weyoun shouted beyond fire before calming himself down, lest he did something he would regret later. "Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria."
Dukat smirked. "Well, you should. The Bajoran people have been cut off from their gods. Perhaps forever."
Now Damar was on the same level Weyoun was with this catastrophe. "How does THAT help us?" he demanded furiously, and now it seemed his faith dwindled.
"Because Sisko," Dukat said in exasperation, "has been cut off from the Prophets as well. And without the Prophets, he's just another Starfleet captain." And THAT was supposed to make him feel better, Weyoun thought sarcastically. Dukat assuring him it would did not change anything in the slightest. Now he was tempted to pick anything up from the room and throw it at the viewscreen, break the image of Dukat once and for all.
~o~
Borath stared down at the beautiful face on the table in replacement of the one that had been brought in and vaporized at once to cover the tracks; the files and documents, everything with Kilana's DNA and makeup were saved someplace else that wasn't here in the Command Center. He had taken great lengths to ensure Kilana's information survived for her fourth and perhaps final incarnation; the outcome of the end of the war was inevitable and far from over, but this was the least he could do for both her and Weyoun, and their unborn child.
From what he heard about Weyoun ever since learning of his wife's death, the ambassador was even more highly temperamental at anyone who crossed paths with him, compared with the loss of Chin'toka and the wormhole closing; this was privately shared between the two of them that Dukat had been at fault. Borath himself was angry; how could they have trusted that failure of a Cardassian with trying to find an easier way to defeat the Federation and losing one of their greatest weapons? But even the Vorta made mistakes besides the Cardassians. Everyone did, including the Founders.
What made Borath even more determined to bring Kilana back was the child she surprisingly conceived with Weyoun. He felt more responsible now than ever, feeling like a grandfather. The fetus had begun to develop in its preservation stage, but it still needed to be returned to its mother's womb, which would be as soon as Kilana 4 came to. Without the correct scientific words of choice, placing the baby in during the cloning process would be extremely difficult.
Now, two weeks later, he stood over the being taken out of the chamber; both cloning assistants carried her over to the table, one underneath the arms and the other grabbed her legs. Her naked body was shining with fluids, which were cleaned off in no time, and her life signs taken. She was very much alive but yet to come to consciousness. "Quickly, prep the fetus," Borath ordered as he pulled his hypospray from his tunic pocket and placed it into the female's neck for surgery.
In the end, he helped dress her in a soft black dress which wrapped around her body; Borath wasn't completely lacking aesthetics like the clones he revived. She looked so vulnerable in her unconscious state that he swore the Founder would never touch her like that again. And what made it even more of a difference: that hideous scar the Founder ordered permanently down the middle of Kilana's abdomen was gone, by his own hand. She would never be scarred physically again, but the memories would remain.
He watched as she slowly opened her eyes, blinking and taking in her surroundings, finally landing on him. Borath smiled and ran his hand across her forehead. "Welcome back, my dear," he said softly. "Do you remember me?" He asked this of every one.
She stared at him for a long time before answering. "Borath."
"Yes." He felt himself melt on the inside. "You're Kilana number four. The last one, the third, was killed via strangulation." He stopped himself in time from saying anything more, because as he watched her face closely, he saw that she was beginning to remember everything that happened. Including the death of Kilana 3. Then her soft violet eyes began to darken with heartbreak, sorrow...and anger at the one responsible.
"Where is Weyoun?" she asked, sitting up slowly and wincing. Borath remained by her side.
"He is very well, although I have to admit that the last Kilana's death affected him more than anyone thinks, including the Founders." He shook his head and turned to one of his assistants, ordering her to find Weyoun and bring him back to his beloved.
~o~
The wormhole being shut down had turned in favor of the worst. Things had been quiet for now, at the Founder's order of caution, but the last two weeks were the worst besides the war for Weyoun; they were still trying to reclaim Chin'toka, only for their task forces to be driven back or to lose some of them.
Damar seemed to be slacking off as well on kanar, turning to it more and more, even enjoying the company of more Cardassian women, sinking to that level as Dukat, amusing Weyoun and disgusting him at the same time. Just now, Weyoun came in and found him passed out in his quarters; he had to shake him awake and get him dressed with the help of two Jem'Hadar, much to the disgust of the Legate who shook them off as soon as he was awake.
"Excuse me, Ambassador!"
"What is it?" He turned around in irritation to see whoever it was bothering him at an irrelevant time - and stopped himself when he recognized one of Borath's cloning assistants. His hopes were immediately on the rise.
"Borath has sent me to retrieve you, if it's not a bad time -"
"Of course not!" Weyoun hurried past the Vorta female, her following him and eventually catching up to escort him down below the center until they reached the laboratories, finding Borath's office and seeing First Dira'tarak as well as eight other Jem'Hadar at attention, waiting for him. They parted to let them both inside, and there was Borath himself smiling from ear to ear, and Weyoun knew exactly why. "Where is she?" he asked excitedly, but before the scientist could answer, there was her voice behind them both.
"Hello, Weyoun."
"Kilana!" He rushed over to her, sweeping her off her feet and spinning her around, kissing her long and passionately. Her hands came up to caress his ears, sending the sensations through his body. Two long, agonizing weeks passed, and he'd thought he'd lost her forever, and the child with her - where was it now? Did Borath save its life as he did the mother, placed it in this one's body? He wanted to ask her, and the man himself who saved them both, but right now, his darling was in his arms once again, and he would gladly get her away from Cardassia and from the war - and from the Founders. "Kilana, I thought I'd lost you! I was so alone and longing to die, be terminated with you!" he cried, holding her to him and burying his face into her neck. "The Founder tried to take you from me..."
"Ssshh, I know," she whispered, a free hand now massaging the nape of his neck and soothing him. He moaned against her. "But I'm here now. We're both here now," she added, drawing back and taking his hand to place on her abdomen. He felt their child alive and well, and tears spilled down his cheeks. And they both thought this would never be possible. He wondered if in her last incarnation, there had been an error in her infertility code that allowed her to finally conceive, but if it was, then Weyoun was proud that it did, and the same went with his own bodily function.
But that also meant one other thing.
"My love, we have to get you both away from here," he told her, taking both her hands in his. "If the Founder finds you alive, then the consequences will be guaranteed..."
"Ambassador, I have taken care of the transport," First Dira'tarak spoke from the doorway, getting their attentions as well as Borath's and his assistant. "It's ready for departure, Kilana," he told the young Vorta he always felt was his responsibility in every assignment and dire situation. "I'll protect her until you come for her," he swore on his life, which Weyoun sincerely took to heart.
He looked down into his wife's eyes and smiled, leaning down to give her another kiss, long and lingering before parting to whisper. "When this war is over, I will join you."
So, there you have it. Kilana and the baby are alive and well, and stay tuned for the grand finale. I really am proud of this. I always say it and it NEVER gets old.
Kilana's waking, now that I remember, reminds me of the end of "Immortal Beloved" by Rose of the Vortaphiles, a beautiful fic off-site I always love to reference and use as inspiration for several other stories of mine, namely the Weyoun/Keevan slash fics - the end of that story involves Keevan 2 waking up with Borath over him, and Borath starts to help him remember by telling him how his predecessor died. It's very sad, very beautiful. It was my first Weyoun fic I picked up many months ago and I never lose it. :)
