When it came to me just like that the fact Weyoun was mind-manipulated by Yutaron to give him permission to start the experimentation, it was all so he would not speak to the Founders and ruin everything for the scheming scientist. I could not take the subject of mind control too lightly, so I did some research and was surprised to know it had not been changed to fit today's (DS9) standards from the twenty-third century. It was stated that "mechanical mind control is beyond the generally available technology of the twenty-fourth century", which meant within the Dominion, it had to be out of everyday tech. Even the Vulcans' methods were limited.
Chapter Eight
"Vera...Vera..."
Vera...
He was alone, the warmth of her soft body against his and her sweet scent gone, taken by her ruthless mother and their friends trying to stop her but failing. He tried to keep his hopes up that Colonel Kira was doing her part now, knowing what little of her, and praying his wife would come back to him before these inhuman pains took him away from her, but now they were slowly ending, except that did not make him any stronger now...
Death was taking its sweet time, now shortening his agony, but it would not be long in coming now. He feared if he closed his eyes, he would not awake again before Vera was back - he wanted nothing more than to just remember all the happy times they shared...
"Keevan, I'm here."
He was laying on his side and facing the door, looking up and seeing a familiar figure in soft gray, accompanied by the face of a Founder - Odo - and a few more Vorta. "Sadara...Odo..." Keevan whispered, closing his eyes finally - briefly - as one of his best habits, for it was a small source of comfort for himself. "I thought you'd never come."
He looked up at her, his old friend and doctor, reading every inch of her face; she loathed the fact that Norah Coleman, the bride's mother, took her daughter away from her dying husband with a lack of rationale and burning personal hatred. Sadara nodded for her colleagues to gather around and help him out of the bed. It was time, it seemed. Keevan barely felt himself being removed from the bed, smelling strongly of perspiration and incoming death, and he was laid onto a stretch slab to be taken to the infirmary where his wife had to be now. He looked up at Odo, the most benevolent of the Founders and the leader of them now - his past loathing was forgotten now as he was no longer considered a despise - but then he saw the face of the one that Sadara named as the main grant to the thing eating away at him inside.
"Weyoun - you -" He could manage no more as his senses were fogged over.
~o~
Odo could not bring himself to look at Weyoun when the Vorta looked at him. He and Bashir had spoken in privacy that his chief Vorta aide might have been mind controlled, but even if he was, then he might not be consciously aware of his own actions; there was no telling because in today's terms, mechanical mind control was beyond the technology today. Yutaron was very clever with his ways that he would be held and dealt with accordingly.
"Odo, forgive me for asking, and I apologize for my ignorance, but Keevan is -"
"He is ill, yes," Odo answered. "Dying. I believe you already know yourself what the cause is." He looked at the Vorta long and hard, watching as the other man took a slight step back.
"The Crimson Shadow Virus."
"And you were the one who authorized it," Odo said sharply. "Without consulting me about it. Why?"
"I had no idea, and I apologize."
"Weyoun, I had thought we made an agreement to confide and trust each other the moment I ordered you activated when the war was over and saved your genetic template," Odo said angrily, hands behind his back. "You could never betray your Founders or your own people - do you realize now what you might have started now that you know four Vorta are already dead and a fifth one will be a new addition very soon?"
"I didn't realize I'd set my own people up for a genocide!" Weyoun insisted, hands held up and clasped together in a plea. "I beg you, Odo, I do not know how I agreed to this, only that Yutaron came to me, and I wasn't aware of anything else other than saying yes to what he asked of me and that I never, under any circumstance, go to you and confide in you first..."
So, he had been manipulated neurally somehow, and that called for Dr. Bashir's examination immediately. Yutaron had thought of everything, he thought disgustedly. He might have been crafty, but he was sloppy in the end and didn't realize it. This was the last error he would ever make, justly. He could have him stripped of his practice and made into a lower-level scientist, but right now he needed Weyoun's help to make this mistake right by helping the latest of one of his own he unwittingly helped infect and leave to die. But that was not the only mistake he made.
"You thought we would even attempt to take over the Alpha Quadrant again. Even when a treaty is signed between our people and the former I once served."
"It was what Yutaron confided in me, claimed that he had already spoken to one of the other Founders and was upmost confident in. Approved that Vorta were perfect given our history. A small part of me issued the warning bells, but something was holding me back from realizing that there was more than meets the eye. Odo, I know saying I am sorry is nothing, but I will do anything to right this grave error. I want to find a cure for this disease he brought back. I do not know why I did not see he wanted to murder our entire race."
Odo growled to himself and started walking away, Weyoun coming beside him. "Well, it's a good thing Sadara confided in me. Yutaron defected; he's a traitor and he will answer for this. The doctor and her colleagues are working to do everything they can. Vera will make it through - but we must hold onto the fact there is still hope for Keevan, no matter his own history of betrayal."
Weyoun nodded. "Keevan is nothing like Yutaron. I see that very clearly now. The Founder is wise in all things," he said, looking up with a small smile that Odo returned.
~o~
She and her husband were placed on separate bio-beds in the same room, but their clothing had been removed so they were placed in long white gowns, their vital signs monitored and kept hydrated to the machines.
Vera was alert to everything going on around her, from hearing the Vorta physicians about and being aware that she was being poked and prodded with needles and such, forced to not look at her husband while she was treated; why did they not see that Keevan was the love of her life and meant more to her than her own health?!
The Vorta had not been made to love, he told her a long time ago, compassion from doctors to patients hardly much of a substitute in place of what he had for her. They were only doing their jobs, nothing more. She wondered if they still hated Keevan after what they might have found out about the truth behind this disease - namely who gave it to him.
"...female...human...stabilized...collagen levels low seventy percent...temperature dropped by fifteen percent to normal..."
A part of her was angry at being called a "human female", as if she wasn't even a being. Good, she was getting better - but she could not say the same for her beloved beside her, whom she was now allowed to slowly turn her head over to look at. Keevan's skin had grown to a point of resembling ashen, and he had lost some weight more than her. She could almost see his rib cage, and his chest was rising up and down with each shallow breath she took. By God, she wanted to hold him one last time, seeing his signs on the machine: he would not last in another hour, or less.
"Keevan?" Vera whispered, reaching out to him, hesitating and drawing it back as she feared she would get reprimanded for even the slightest movement to disturb the other patient. But nothing happened; everyone seemed too busy to even care about her holding her husband's hand. "Keevan, my love, I'm here," she croaked out.
His eyes had been closed that he managed to hear her and looked over in her direction. His beautiful purple eyes, once filled with life and passion, were darker and bordering on the kind of purple when the sun went down - symbolic of life ending and darkness overtaking. His light was going to diminish while her own would be bright again - how ironic, cruelly ironic. "Vera," he whispered back, feebly lifting his own hand in her direction, his fingers latching onto hers without trouble, but his hand felt much smaller in hers in both weight and physical appearance. "Don't let me go..."
"Don't you let me go," she corrected, wanting so much to kiss him, too. "I won't let you go as long as I live. I promise...I'll never love again. There will never be another one like you, Keevan."
"Love is very...powerful. It's what separates the Founders from the rest of the solids, with Odo being the exception."
She almost jumped when she looked up and saw the same Vorta female beside Odo when he had arrived. She was leaning close enough to keep her voice low for Vera's ears only, but who knew how many other Vorta were listening. Keevan was looking at her, too, whilst keeping his wife's hand in his. "Doctor...?" she asked, furrowing her brows.
"Sadara."
"Sadara. How do you know that?" she asked quietly.
She shook her head. "I don't know because my entire four lifetimes have been to care for my patients, because all lives are counted on - but never have I truly believed in what I am seeing in you both now. Odo has been preaching that there can be no living without love, something his own people are struggling to see beyond their own kind. He says not all solids are terrible, and he is right. No one is truly utopian, and it never will be. I want you both to know that if I had it in me to fully believe it - and I know you both do - it would be the simple fact that the only healing source in all things is love. True, powerful, and unstoppable."
~o~
Julian admitted he was partly surprised to encounter Yutaron, the rebel scientist, so soon especially when he was supposed to be helping with the terminally ill Keevan and Vera, but Sadara had it under control and did not want to be beside Odo when he confronted her traitorous colleague. Odo had wanted to spare her the trouble by not having her testify for now. His intentions now were to bring this to the public attention as it was no longer a private matter, and the Dominion would not be as it once was. It would become a fair trial for him even if Yutaron's actions were heinous.
"Yutaron, this is most grievous and inexcusable for a Vorta," Odo said angrily. "I spent all my years with the Federation making sure anyone like you is made to serve our justice, and since there will be a new Dominion near completion, I'll make sure it serves the same way the Federation does. Which is what I think is suitable for your crimes against your own people. Just what did you hope to accomplish?"
The Vorta scientist was straight-faced, his features consisting of a rounded nose and a slim face, his eyes an extremely dark, malevolent shade of purple - the irony. Sometimes even the most brilliant of minds could betray their ideals and what their people stood for personal reasons. "My people have long been enslaved by the Founders for millennia, Odo, but there was no other logical way to ensure that we would ever be free. It has been two years since the war ended, and how have we improved? Keevan had demonstrated that it was impossible, so I could only think of the one sure way to free the Vorta."
Julian seethed and took a step forward. "By murdering your own people? And then what? Save yourself for last? What good would that have done the Dominion if they lost their Vorta? The Crimson Shadow Virus was eradicated for a reason by the Founders' order. You were well-respected for creation, but now you're resorted to taking life!" He wasn't the judge and jury, but he despised this man for taking the lives of four and now a fifth very soon - and the fifth's wife would not have been so lucky if she were Vorta. "Have you even found a cure for this thing if it even occurred to you?!"
"Of course not, Bashir! I already tried to concoct one, but the Crimson Shadow Virus has no antidote. There never was then, and I couldn't even make one now, not even if there was a chance."
"You're a murderer, not even as close to a scientist as I am." He looked up at Odo when his old friend spoke.
"I concur with Dr. Bashir. As your Founder, I will order the project terminated, but your fate will be decided once we return to the Gamma Quadrant."
Yutaron scoffed. "And what about Weyoun and Sadara? They played pivotal roles with me, Founder," he sneered. Keevan was not the only Vorta known to see that the Changelings were not gods.
"You mind-controlled Weyoun and you blackmailed the doctor!"
Bashir's comm badge beeped. "Nurse Jabara to Dr. Bashir."
"Go ahead," he said, turning away from the rogue Vorta and from Odo. He went rigid and had the feeling Odo did as well.
"We're going to need you back down here in the infirmary. Vera is alive, but Keevan..." She trailed off right there. "It's critical. He's destabilizing."
~o~
The grass was very subtle, soft, beneath their bared backs. Overhead, the sun shone down on them as they lay with their bodies on opposite ends but their heads facing each other, and she reached for him with her right hand, grasping his right in return, never letting go and promising she would never abandon him as long as she was alive. The sun began to shine brighter, blurring everything, and she could no longer see his handsome face smiling at her, catching the horror in his eyes as they were being parted by the natural sun which could never be stopped any more than -
~o~
"KEEVAN, DON'T GO!"
The room was in a flash as it all happened so fast. The machines began to beep rapidly as the signs went down. No blood pressure, no oxygen, no heartbeat - nothing. He was going away, but none of the doctors were giving up, and Dr. Bashir himself hurried to rejoin them all.
"All right, charge up the paddles!"
Vera wanted so much to scream they were killing him this way, but she was not in the best of judgment form, and could only sit up and watch in horror as her husband was given more oxygen with a mask strapped over his face, the front of his gown torn open to show his bare chest and abdomen so the electrical paddles were brought over; in response, his body flip-flopped like a fish on land, which was common. She closed her eyes and turned away; she found herself against a warmer, feminine body and immediately looked up to see Ezri there, and Colonel Kira was in the doorway along with Quark and his nephew who had to be there. Who knew where Odo and the rest of his unit were, but all she could think of was Keevan dying beside her, and the doctors doing everything they could to save him - but it was all no use in the end.
"Damn it, we were so close..." she heard Dr. Bashir mutter, disdained and furious - as well as grief-stricken. "I don't want to give up now -"
"Julian, we don't either, but we did everything we could," Sadara said, mournfully and softer than he was.
Vera leaned into the crook of Dax's neck and began to sob. She held onto the Trill and let her broken heart tear into millions of pieces as it had happened, even though she and so many of these people around her she loved as family and friends had high hopes despite the bleak truth.
Keevan was dead.
I'm so sorry everyone is hurt, but it's not the end. :( I said this was based off of E.T., so don't lose hope.
