A/N: Content warning: there is brutal violence in this chapter, some of it of a sexual nature, that holds triggering potential.

Chapter 24 – Fire

With six crates full of food and supplies stowed in the back of the shuttle, Madelyn sank to the floor to catch her breath, wiping her hands on her shirt before clearing her hair from her face. She was on the verge of feeling back to her normal self, but the sixth crate had been heavier than the others and she probably would have been better off if she'd taken a break before trying to lug it around rather than after, when her heartrate was elevated and her head spinning.

It had been four days since the incident with Owen, four days since she'd lost her unborn baby, and one day since she'd decided she was ready to reconcile her relationship with Khan. But it had felt like weeks. Despite having shared a passionate kiss with him just yesterday, he continued to allow her the space to think and the time to rest, but she'd told him what she wanted and was now obligated to help him prepare to leave. It was more than just about helping him however; it was about starting over for her own needs, and for her own future, and if that meant doing so alongside him then she couldn't see how that would be a problem.

She was shocked with the amount of change that had taken place between them in such a short amount of time. She wouldn't have felt the same three or four days ago. By kissing him, she'd given him permission to encroach on her personal space, but she'd need to limit their contact if he was to realize that her bed wasn't open to him yet. It was the first step down a long road that she was neither reluctant nor excited to travel. She was just ready to move on, and this time she'd be moving on beside Khan rather than despite him. She felt no trepidation about this now.

Madelyn stood up from the floor carefully, bracing her hands on the wall just in case. She was doing exponentially better than she had the day before, but she knew she only had her augment genes to thank for that. Even after she'd learned what she was, she'd never considered herself more physically advantaged than other ordinary humans, not until now.

As she stepped down from the shuttle, Khan greeted her on the hangar floor by coming up to her and sliding his hand along the side of her face, his gaze growing concerned. "You're pale. Did you load all of those crates just now?"

"They weren't that heavy," she said with a shrug. "Someone needed to do it." She was somewhat surprised at his doting behavior. Maybe he thought he could make up for his past actions this way.

His thumb began to draw circles on her cheek. "I want you to be strong when we leave. You need to conserve your energy for now." His hand shifted and his thumb dropped to trace the contour of her throat.

She couldn't help but swallow as she looked up at him. His hand was warm and made her face feel like it was glowing, but his gaze bothered her. "Is this how you're going to look at me every time I do something you don't want me to?" she asked. His gaze shifted and changed immediately.

"Would you prefer me to look at you differently?"

She couldn't quite restrain her smile, even as his fingers slid up the back of her neck and into her hair. He was teasing her.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," she muttered right before her breath was stolen away in a kiss. She registered his other hand sliding around her waist, until he was able to draw her up against him. She draped her arm around his neck, letting herself disappear in his embrace for just a few seconds. He smelled less metallic than he had yesterday, his natural musk taking over and mixing with soap and that funny undertone of vanilla mint.

She tensed when his fingers slipped beneath her shirt and began to skirt around her waist, teasing the midline of her back. She broke the kiss and slid her arm away from his neck until her hand rested on his shoulder. His wandering fingers paused against her skin, but the intensity of his gaze was overwhelming.

"You know I can't do this right now," she breathed.

"Tell me when to stop and I'll stop," he replied, his tone dropping with his lips onto her neck. Madelyn gritted her teeth.

"No."

She regretted her tone as she pressed at his chest in a half-hearted attempt to put space between them. His grip on her was so tight that she needed him to listen to her now, otherwise she was afraid he might succumb to his urges. She had no way of knowing if he could control himself. She'd never tried to draw a line with him like this before.

"No, Khan. Look at me."

Her request was a simple one, but the hand she placed on his cheek made him acquiesce quickly. She knew that as long as she had his full attention, she could ask almost anything of him. He had promised her that yesterday.

"I can't do this," she repeated. "I'm not afraid of you anymore, but I'm not ready to let you in again. Not yet." The truth of it stung, no more than the truth of what he had done to her. You used me. You lied to me. You lost my trust. The pain was still fresh.

Khan was silent long enough to make her uncomfortable. What if he changed his mind? What if this had all been an act? She had no way of getting away from him now, not when his fingers were tangled in her hair and pressing into the small of her back.

No, she imagined him growling. He would tighten his hands around her waist and force her back against the wall and she would be powerless to stop him. Everything he had ever said would be a lie and she had been naïve enough to fall for him again.

"All you needed to do was tell me," he said softly, lurching her from her thoughts. He almost sounded indignant. The warmth of his hands disappeared from her skin, but one paused on her shoulder. The immediate lack of contact with him bothered her.

"I don't want to push you away. I just need to slow down," she added quickly. Maybe too quickly. She lowered her gaze to avoid any notion of his reaction to what she said next. "Maybe this was a mistake."

Khan took her head gently and placed a kiss on her temple. "It is only my mistake," he replied against her skin. "I led you on and lied to you. You have every right not to trust me now."

Madelyn swallowed through the lump growing in her throat, but the tears stinging her eyes betrayed everything when he returned his gaze to hers. She didn't know what else to say. Maybe she didn't need to say anything. Maybe the expression on her face would be enough.

"Take as long as you need," he continued. "You can always say no to me if you wish. All I ask is that you take the initiative for yourself."

She nodded, and slowly he relinquished his grip on her. She wanted to murmur a thank you, but as he stepped away reminders poured from his mouth of the work that still needed to be done before they would fly away from this place. Before she could begin to form the question on her lips that was taking shape in her mind, Khan dashed it all from her consciousness.

"For right now, however, I want you to rest. After we leave, you may not get an opportunity to relax comfortably. I saw the pallor in your face and knew you were not strong enough. You know you can't fool me."

Madelyn felt a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"Do I make myself clear?" he added, his tone too casual to match what might normally have been a serious demand.

"Absolutely," she answered, quietly in order to mask her emotions. He was doing everything he could possibly do to heal the wounds he'd caused her, but this unfamiliar behavior still made her wary.

She watched him silently as he went past her to the shuttle's control panel and made some last minute checks, verbally laying out every detail purposefully so she could learn them as well. He'd mentioned the day before how he wanted her to learn to control the shuttle herself in case he was unable to for whatever reason, though she couldn't come up with a likely scenario for that happening. Nonetheless, she was growing familiar with the various switches and controls. It was old technology, but it did the trick.

She went up to stand beside him, focusing her gaze over the various buttons and switches, and rested a hand over a set of blue switches. "These turn on the engines," she said, glancing at him. Then she slid her fingers across the console to a small black toggle that fit into her palm when she curled her fingers around it. "And this accelerates it, or slows it down, depending on which setting I've got this on." She motioned to a panel in the wall on her left, the only one on the ship that was new and clearly labeled, with various toggles for warp, non-warp, and atmospheric speeds.

"You've caught on quickly," Khan said. He came up behind her until her back bumped against his chest. "I should let you fly us out of here."

Madelyn pressed her fingers into the control panel and bit her lip as he pulled her hair away from the back of her neck and kissed her there. She exhaled carefully, willing herself not to shudder as his hot breath sank into her skin. He was constantly insatiable, even in the subtlest of ways, and his voice had dropped.

"I should have thanked you for moving those crates, rather than scolding you," he continued, sliding a hand over hers until their fingers interlocked. "I've been too busy with these modifications to know what supplies were still needed."

Madelyn managed to turn around to face him again. If she'd let him, he would have bent her back over the control panel, but she wrapped her hand around his forearm to help herself stand straight. His tendons were taut, as if he was willingly restraining himself, but he hid it well.

"You like to be in control of everything," she replied. "I know."

"Good."

"That doesn't mean I agree."

His gaze swept over her and penetrated her and she almost wanted him to try and touch her again despite her vocal reservations. She smirked when the corner of his mouth twitched, as though he was trying to restrain his own smile.

"Do you know why I sought you out in the beginning?" he asked quietly.

A hundred thoughts instantly zipped through her mind, but she landed on the most obvious, his voice echoing through the brig of the Enterprise. You have always been better.

Madelyn's steady gaze faltered. "You wanted me because I was like you."

"Perhaps."

She looked back up at him, her lips pressing together in a thin line.

"However, there is more truth in that than I've allowed myself to recognize," he continued. "You are a superior woman. You have always been, and not just in body."

He raised the arm she was holding onto until his fingers could gently cup her jaw.

"You have fire in you, Madelyn. Don't ever let me put it out."

A silent moment passed before he slipped out of her grip and put space between them.

"There are a few more adjustments I need to make before we leave. The tools I need are in storage. I'll be back."

His words lingered in the air as he looked at her for a moment, like he was waiting for her to follow him or to say something, but then he turned away and left the shuttle. She watched the back of his head until he disappeared from sight, registering her own disappointment in his absence.

She'd spent four confusing days down here with him, and he had still managed to exceed all her expectations. Not only was he willing to listen to everything she said, but he'd gone so far as to reassure her that he wanted her for who she was, not what she could give him. He'd even recognized that he knew what she could give him, and somehow that wasn't as important to him as the person that she was in this moment.

He hadn't turned and looked back at her. He hadn't even demanded a response. But for some reason his words rang like a declaration of respect, and Madelyn felt absolutely high.

She wanted nothing more than for Khan to continue being this way. No more violence. No more talk of violence. No more dwelling on the past, because the past was gone. Everything that reminded her of that past was gone, or changed, or forgiven. She'd seen the darker side of his potential and she knew what he was capable of. Now for the first time she was realizing the lighter. If she could be the one to coax that out of him, then she would gladly accept that challenge.

Madelyn jumped as a blaring alarm vibrated through the shuttle. Pulsating red lights illuminated the hangar walls and she went out into the corridor to investigate, wondering if Khan had accidentally triggered something. A quiet little voice in the back of her mind told her he would never be that careless. An all too familiar figure stalked around the corner and when he saw her, he advanced towards her. Her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.

How had he gotten in here without being found out? She turned on her heel and escaped back onto the shuttle, scrambling for the control panel. She regretted that she didn't know where Khan was now. She should have gone with him.

She began the process of turning on the shuttle and prayed it would be in time, glancing around frantically for anything she could use to defend herself. An old-fashioned fire extinguisher embedded behind safety glass caught her eye. Without hesitation, she broke the glass, hissing as her fist was cut. Owen's heavy bootsteps thudded up the ramp as she turned back to the control panel, clutching the cold red cylinder. The shuttle was still revving itself to life, but Owen was already onboard.

The readout of the underground facility Joaquin had provided had made Owen's job easy. With a modified life signs detector in his communicator, he'd been able to avoid Khan and pinpoint Madelyn's location within minutes. Whatever suspicions Khan had carried of Joaquin's knowledge of the bunker, they had obviously not been certain.

Once Owen had found the central security room, initiating a standard lockdown left him with a straight path to the hangar. Madelyn had remained there, a blue flashing blip on his communicator. His blue flashing blip, if he acted quickly. He couldn't know how long it would take Khan to break out of the small storage room he had currently been trapped in by a set of bombproof doors. Potentially minutes? Potentially less, and the thought of Khan set loose and coming after him made him run faster. He tightened his grip on the small pack in his hand. It carried the one thing that gave him an advantage over Madelyn now, and the one thing he was certain she would finally come to respect about him. Maybe not now, but in the future. It was what she'd seen in Khan afterall, so why not him? He glanced at his watch. He would need another dose in about an hour.

As he came around the corner towards the hangar, he found her in the corridor, but when she saw him she immediately turned and fled. Moments later, a set of old engines roared to life, and he faintly smiled. She didn't know it, but she was just making his job easier.

He stormed up the shuttle's ramp just in time to see her whirl around from the control panel, catching sight of a red cylinder clenched in her hands just before she slammed it into his skull. He dropped his pack of precious serum on the shuttle floor and let her hit him.

Was that a fire extinguisher, like he'd seen in a few old movies once? He would have laughed, were it not for the stars clouding his vision. The impact of the cold metal felt like a dull thud, but it wasn't enough to incapacitate him. It would have cracked his skull once, were it not for the serum.

He swayed on his feet. He would let her think she'd won, and then he'd catch her off-guard. She swung at him again with an angry yell and he doubled over, clutching his knees and feigning a pained groan.

"You bastard," he heard her mutter somewhere above her. She sounded so goddamned angry. What had he even done to her, other than place a few well-deserved punches a few days ago?

"Get the fuck out of here, or I swear to god—"

It made him furious to hear her speak to him this way, and he channeled that into his forward momentum. He straightened and snagged her throat in his hand, slamming her against the wall so forcefully that the impact vibrated through the shuttle's walls. The anger on her face melted into fear.

"Or you swear to god what?" he crooned, pressing himself dangerously close to her, using his body to trap her legs against the wall. Christ, she even smelled like him. "What are you going to do?"

He could feel her trying to swallow as she fought to breathe underneath his hand. He caught her other arm, the one that still clutched the fire extinguisher, and slowly twisted it around until she winced. The fire extinguisher fell to the floor with a hollow clunk and he kicked it away so it rolled down the boarding ramp. Her other hand was still trying to pry his away from her throat. It was nice to be stronger than her. He noticed specks of blood on her knuckles and smirked at the thought that despite her superior genes she could still bleed.

"You don't do anything now unless I say so," he murmured into her ear. He could smell the anger leaking out of her and tightened his chokehold accordingly. "Do we have an understanding?"

Her upper lip curled and fury burned in her green eyes. "Go to hell," she spat.

Owen slammed her head against the wall again and she slumped unconscious to the floor. He glanced over his shoulder towards the hangar doors, but Khan had yet to make an appearance. Good. He went over to the control panel and quickly deciphered how to work the shuttle's ancient technology. It was no more complicated than some of the simulator ships he'd flown at the Academy and in Section 31.

In seconds, he'd sealed the shuttle's hatch and triggered the hangar ceiling outside to open to a square of sky blue rimmed with the tops of redwoods. As the shuttle turned in its autopilot breach of the facility, the hangar floor below briefly came into view. Khan rushed across the empty room, his fists clenched at his side. He couldn't touch Madelyn now.

Owen smirked and accelerated the shuttle into the sky, California's giant redwoods shrinking beneath them. When he punched the ship into warp, its casing shuddered but held. Khan had done some admittedly good work, and a quick check of the control panel revealed they were traveling at a moderate warp speed for the shuttle's size.

They'd reach the Io Facility in just over thirty-six hours.

Khan stared up at the empty blue sky, watching as a pinprick of white light from the shuttle's jump to warp faded until it had disappeared. Every muscle, vein, and cell in his body vibrated with rage.

He knew this was Joaquin's doing. All of a sudden it had hit him that there was no other way Owen could have known anything about the bunker without Joaquin's assistance. That revelation made him even angrier. He should have expected this. He should have been prepared for this. But he was too busy working, too busy planning for a vague future with Madelyn that could now potentially be wiped away forever.

The moments he'd spent with her had revealed so much about each of them. He'd shown her a part of himself he would never dare share with anyone else, and she had accepted him. She was all he had, and any man who thought they could take her away from him would pay dearly.

When he caught Owen Gallagher—and he would catch him—he would give him the most painful punishment he could concoct. Joaquin was another matter entirely.

His fingernails dug into his palms until he'd drawn his own blood. He unclenched his fists and resolved to take action that he would never have considered under normal circumstances. These were not normal circumstances.

He would contact Dr. McCoy first. He would do it in such a way that would prevent Starfleet from learning his whereabouts. He knew the doctor cared for Madelyn in his own way, and since she'd been gone for four days already without explanation, Khan imagined McCoy would jump at an opportunity to help find her.

He gritted his teeth when he considered who else he might need to seek assistance from. Kirk could be avoided, but that would mean giving up all absolutely necessary resources: time, technology, manpower, and a willingness to work outside Starfleet protocol. The Enterprise and her crew could provide all of that, but that would mean an almost certain confrontation with Commander Spock. Just the thought of the Vulcan set Khan even more on edge. He didn't like the idea of seeking help from the being who had murdered his family, but if the situation called for it he knew he would have no choice. He would give everything to get Madelyn back, including his sense of honor and revenge if it came to that. That bastard Owen had already taken their unborn child. He had no right to even look at her, much less touch her. And Khan was almost certain he would try to do more than touch her.

He ran into storage and found a suitable disguise that would help him blend into the public sphere. An old dark grey cotton sweatshirt with a hood that could be pulled over his face. It smelled musty and needed to be washed. It would do. He considered hiding a phaser or some sort of weapon inside his clothing, but decided against it. He would need every possible advantage, and that included holding the trust of people he hated, who hated him in return.

Madelyn was worth too much to risk a confrontation, but he would board the Enterprise in cuffs if he had to.

Owen glanced over his shoulder when Madelyn let out a pained groan. She was still on the floor, her fingers curled beside her head, but she was slowly regaining consciousness. Red blood glistened on the back of her scalp, partially concealed by her dark hair. She'd be fine in a few hours, but he'd need to find something to restrain her with in the meantime.

He checked the controls over again to be sure they were going in the right direction, then went over and knelt down beside her. She groaned again as she tried to sit up, her eyes meeting his with as much anger as she'd shown earlier. Before she could sit up completely, Owen took her jaw and forced her to look up at him.

"I've done so much for you, Maddy, and I really do regret that it's come to this."

She glared at him warily. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

He gave her the most genuine look he could. "I want to give you something better. Khan doesn't deserve you. You know how much he's lied."

"You're an idiot if you think I'd ever want you," she scoffed. "Not after what you've done."

"Joaquin needed my help and he's given me a gift," he replied with a shrug. "I'm only returning the favor."

She tried to scramble to her feet so he slid his fingers around her throat again, stopping her and keeping her crouched against the wall. She pulled her legs up to her chest despite this, but she never looked away from him. Her resolve was unnerving.

"Look at yourself," she said quietly. "Look at what you're doing. Look at what you've become. You're disgusting."

"You know me better than that," he replied firmly.

"I don't know you at all! Jesus, don't you know what you did?!" she shrieked, straining under his grip which he found himself tightening so she wouldn't raise her voice like that again. He cocked his head slightly, waiting for her to explain.

"I was pregnant," she whispered. "I was pregnant, and you took that from me."

He stared at her, turning his face away slightly as though he didn't believe her. He barely recalled wondering why she looked so fat, and then he didn't recall anything else at all. "If you were pregnant, it was Khan's. You should thank me. I'm sure he never asked you what you wanted anyway."

She clenched her teeth together and stared at him furiously, but she didn't say anything. There were tears in her eyes and that pissed him off even more. After all her attempts to pretend like she was strong, and here she was locked in his grip and crying about a dead baby. Finally, he had her where he wanted her.

He released his grip on her throat and leaned back on his ankles, propping his arms up on his knees. "You're never going to see him again. And if you do, he'll know about your little secret. And then he probably won't want you back."

Her lips parted and he saw the fear flit through her eyes, but she persisted. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He found himself smiling now. "His crew. Of course you know about them. Commander Spock never killed them. You can't pretend you didn't know that. It's common knowledge throughout all Starfleet's upper ranks."

"Why does it matter?" she bit back.

Owen laughed suddenly at her denial. "Why does it matter? Come on, Maddy, don't be thick! Joaquin needs them! They're his people! Why do you think he has me bringing you to him? So he can get his people back!"

Madelyn looked at him wordlessly, her expression gone dead. "What does this have to do with me?"

Owen leaned towards her and she straightened back against the wall. He rolled his eyes. "I know you and Kirk had conversations during the trial. One way or another, it will come out." He lowered his voice and glanced down as he slid his fingers around her wrist. "You can't keep the secret forever."

When he looked back at her, her face carried a mixture of confusion and fear and hatred. It suddenly struck him what a beautiful combination of emotions she bore, or rather the way she bore it. Her jaw tight and her lips firm and her eyes piercing and watching every move he made, flitting every now and then to his hand on her arm. Finally, he was in a position to take what he wanted.

He reached out and took a handful of her hair, holding her head in place while he pressed his mouth to hers. He didn't let her turn away. He inhaled at the taste of her lips, and sucked the protest from her mouth. He wanted more.

He pulled her roughly to her feet by her arm and hair. When she kicked him in the shin, he took the blow with a grunt and then pinned her against the wall, pressing himself up against her. He wanted her so badly. He could already feel himself straining in his pants. He ignored her attempts to struggle in his grip and tightened his fingers in her scalp as a warning. Hungry sounds escaped his throat as he bit at her lips. He couldn't get enough of her fast enough.

Then he realized her arm had slipped out of his grip. He cursed at himself for being too careless, and then a thumb slipped inside his eye socket. He screamed and lurched away, bumping into the wall behind him, catching a glimpse of the determination on Madelyn's face as she swung a fist up into his diaphragm. The breath left his body, but it wasn't enough to stop him from tackling her.

Her body slammed against the metal floor as Owen pinned her underneath him, his hips rutting against her instinctively. The stimulation was more than he could bear. When she wriggled underneath him, he took her throat again and squeezed. She clawed at him, tearing at his shirt, her mouth wide open and gasping for air that he wouldn't let her breathe.

"Do you know what else Joaquin is giving me?"

She still glared at him but had stopped struggling, all her energy probably focused on trying to stay lucid. He ground his hips against her, groaned at the building sensation, and pressed his mouth to her ear. His other hand fumbled with her zipper and managed to get it down.

"You," he breathed into her ear. With one hand firmly latched around her neck, he pulled his trousers out of the way and groaned at the freedom he now had. His head felt like it was spinning as he angled himself and started to pull her jeans down. God, he was finally going to have her.

Suddenly and despite his hold on her neck, she twisted around and thrust her knee up into his bare groin. He yelled and rolled off of her, doubling over and forgetting all about squeezing the oxygen from her body, forgetting all about finally having her for himself. He lay there in the fetal position, sputtering and cursing as all the desire evaporated from his body.

And then vaguely he noticed that his bag was missing from the corner. His bag containing the serum dosages.

As the pain began to subside and he caught his breath, he realized Madelyn was in the cockpit. It took him another second before he realized what she was doing and something inside him cracked.

Owen pushed himself from the floor just as the airlock's warning lights flickered yellow, and slammed his body into the airlock door, as though he could somehow stop the bag on the other side from venting into space. He was too late.

He whirled around and stormed to the cockpit, yanking her down by her hair. "You bitch!" he spat. "You should have let me have you before!"

He barely noticed the expressionlessness of her face as he gripped her scalp with one hand and pummeled the other into her face until her nose was bloody, and into her ribcage until he heard a crack, and into her abdomen. When he was tired of hitting her he let her go, and she sank against the wall, silent and motionless and bloody.

"That ought to teach you a lesson," he muttered.

Madelyn didn't respond. She stared into the space in front of her and pulled her knees to her chest, wincing. Owen wiped his bloody fist on his shirt and turned back to the cockpit, rubbing his forehead. A headache was already coming on him. He'd need to get some more serum from Joaquin when they arrived. He'd just have to steel himself until then.

I apologize if the violence was too much. I don't like to be very descriptive when it comes to that. Thank you so much for reading, and please leave a review!