Hey guys! What is happening? So I know I left things on a bit of a cliff-hanger so I figured I wouldn't make you all wait as long for the next chapter!

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Ok I love you all. Enjoy!

Chapter 29 – The Illusory Monster

"As acting captain of the starship Enterprise, and by the authority vested in me by the United Federation of Planets, I am placing you all under arrest for treason and crimes against humanity, among other misdeeds which I am sure a military tribunal will be more than happy to investigate, but which I have neither the desire nor the inclination to attend to." Spock turned from the only three living people they'd found on the entire station as they were led away by a heavily armed squadron of redshirts. "Dr. McCoy, I would like you to run tests on our prisoners as soon as they are secure in their respective cells. Confirm that they are who they have claimed themselves to be. If they speak, remember that they will try to manipulate you as Khan once manipulated Captain Kirk."

"We sure don't want a repeat of that day," McCoy grumbled, recalling those events that had occurred over a month ago, a day that ended with the deaths of thousands.

They'd all seen the damage one Augment could do, so when they'd stormed the station upon arrival, it had been with the combined redshirted forces of three starships: the Enterprise, the Entente, and the Defiant. It still boggled McCoy's mind that this facility, apparently operated by Section 31 until recently, had remained off the record.

Of the three prisoners, he half-wondered about the female, but only because she'd already willingly divulged potentially lethal information before being cuffed. She called herself Cecelia Rodriguez and claimed that she wanted to help them if it meant a return of the rest of their crew. She declared that she was loyal to Khan only, and knew what he was really planning. She even insisted there were two more of their people still at large, one of them Joaquin's wife. Apparently she was a threat and needed to be "dealt with" quickly. Something about a fissure between Khan and Joaquin, a grasp for power where it wasn't deserved. McCoy didn't know what to believe, but he wasn't going to let the words of a singular Augment make him do something he'd regret. Not this time.

Not that he regretted what he did for Khan the first time. But Madelyn was still missing, so nothing had changed.

Meanwhile the other two prisoners, both male, hadn't offered up anything useful, one of them not even speaking at all, and the other sneering at them and muttering to himself.

"Captain, we've got a lock on the K'Normian vessel," said Sulu, glancing up from his PADD as he approached them. "Its warp signature appears to have it heading back to Earth."

Spock nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Sulu. Alert Admiral Cole to track down the vessel. Whoever is onboard is to be identified and properly apprehended."

McCoy wondered what good Jim's original plan had been to track the K'Normian ship, since both Madelyn and Khan were still missing, and if Cecelia's claims could be believed, the Augment known as Joaquin Weiss was with them. This gave him the sickest feeling, coupled with the scene they'd stumbled upon in the station's main control room. There was a likely chance that some major infighting had taken place, leaving in its wake at least one casualty. After scanning the poor girl's body and putting her DNA makeup into a handheld database, her connection with Madelyn became all too apparent. Kelly Beckett's name was listed alongside Madelyn's on the lease of a two-bedroom apartment in London. She'd also worked as a receptionist in the building that had once housed William McGivers' office.

Whatever was happening here, it wasn't over. In the meantime, however, he had a job to do.

He trailed the redshirts to the brig, where he was promptly frisked and let in only when it was clear he was there to take samples. But upon meeting Cecelia's gaze again, he realized that wasn't altogether true.

He quickly got what he needed from the other two, thinking over what he could say to her before she bombarded him with her own demands. She had a subtle beauty about herself, like every Augment as he was coming to realize. Perfect bone structure, keen eyes, flawless skin—except for rapidly healing bruises and cuts from the exchange that had taken place before Starfleet arrived. Everything about her carriage screamed, "I was created to be superior to humans and I know it." McCoy raised a disapproving eyebrow to emphasize what he thought about that.

"Something bothering you, doctor?"

Her faint Spanish accent was rich and mellow. McCoy reminded himself that she would say anything to get what she wanted, just like Khan had. Hell, she might even resort to crying.

"Just here doin' my job," he said, partially to remind himself of the fact as he attached his syringe to the inside of her arm, filling it with her blood. The room was guarded by fifteen redshirts, five per Augment just in case. Hopefully it wasn't part of their job description to keep prisoners from talking.

"I know you're the only one who was listening to me back there," she said quietly. "I can tell you everything I know, but I won't tell it to you for free."

McCoy removed the syringe and almost turned away as the force field sealed itself shut again, then he hesitated. He needed to know, and this might be the only way.

He pressed his face as close to the glass as he dared, meeting her gaze firmly. "I can't promise you anything, but I can't say I blame you because I think we both want the same thing."

She crossed her arms and tilted her chin up a little, looking aloof as ever. "You want what's best for Madelyn, and I want to be reunited with my people. All of my people." She glanced to the side. "Except Joaquin."

"Like I said, no promises."

They stared at each other for a long silent moment.

"You shouldn't try to get between them," she said, breaking the silence.

McCoy blanched. "Now wait just a minute. That ain't what I came here to talk about—"

"You are so easy to read, Dr. McCoy!" She grinned faintly. "But it really isn't a good idea. If he wants her, he will get her."

"Dammit, woman, I'm a doctor, not some pathetic lonely soul with an unrequited love interest. Get over yourself and tell me what the hell is going on!"

Her grin widened, but she contained her soft laughter, nodding. "Alright, but first I have one question. Do you know where my people are?"

McCoy blinked at her swift change in tone. "Nope. I don't know anybody that does. That's information more classified than Section 31—dammit, you're supposed to be answering my questions! I knew this was a mistake," he grumbled.

"That was my one question." She shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

"Look, it'll be suspicious if I stay down here for much longer and I've got a medbay to oversee, so you tell me what I wanna know or I'll never give your people another thought again."

She clearly took his half-assed threat seriously and pressed her lips into a thin line.

"Just how many of you are awake anyway? I thought Marcus only woke Khan."

"We were originally twelve, shipped out to be experimented on in secret. We didn't know that Khan had been awakened until July of last year. Then Admiral Marcus decided at the last minute that twelve was too dangerous of a number. So now there are six of us, excluding Khan. The other seventy-two are missing."

"Six?"

"Myself, Aidan McPherson, and Otto Novak are here. Then there's Joaquin and his wife Suzette, and Kati Singh who all got away before you arrived."

"Kati Singh?"

"Khan's biological sister."

McCoy let that sink in for a moment, then he recalled something even more important. "Where's Owen Gallagher? Why wasn't he on the station?"

Cecelia sighed, her façade slipping away for a moment. "This is a long story, doctor."

McCoy crossed his arms and planted his feet. "Spare me the details."

"I'm not sure I can."

Madelyn settled herself into a seat near the back of the shuttle, breathing out in a moment of physical respite that did nothing to ease her mind. She wouldn't be able to give them what they wanted, and then they wouldn't have a use for her. One of them was going to kill her.

A thought hailing from February poked at the back of her mind again and a long forgotten sense of dread curled up into her stomach. Khan might still have a use for her. She shut her eyes for a moment, praying desperately that it wouldn't happen, that he was too angry with her to even consider it. But he'd tried to do it before. He could do it again if he wanted and she wouldn't be able to stop him.

Everything she'd believed he had the potential to be had crumbled to the ground, and all of her defenses with it. The best thing that could happen now was a quick death, before anyone got any more ideas about repopulating their species.

She glanced over at him. His back was turned, his hands steady on the shuttle's controls. He exchanged a few quiet words with Joaquin, who glanced back at her like she was the most delicious meal he'd ever seen and he was about to devour her.

The nausea in her gut thickened.

Joaquin spun around out of his seat, directing his bright gaze at her until he towered over her, and then his gaze darkened in his own shadow. "You know why I killed her," he said. "Now that you have nothing left to lose, you're free to tell the whole truth. I'd hate to see you push Khan to do something I'm sure he'd rather not do."

She looked up at him, scarcely able to believe that he was dragging things out like this. That Khan was letting him drag things out like this.

"I don't have anything left to say to you."

She tensed when Joaquin slid his fingers around her jaw and lifted her face, forcing her to maintain eye contact.

You disgusting piece of shit.

She swallowed the words to keep from pushing any more buttons. She still had her life, but the hope that she would make it off of this shuttle with it still intact was quickly slipping away.

Maybe he could read her thoughts in her eyes.

"Otto told you what happened to Aidan," he murmured.

His hand slid down to her neck, fingers pressing into her skin, bending tendons and constricting blood flow. Stars pricked her vision before he finally released the pressure.

"It's a pity Khan's here. I'd have liked to try it on you. Being only a fractional Augment, I wonder if you'd even survive."

"I recall ordering you not to touch her, Joaquin," Khan called over his shoulder.

Madelyn steadied her breathing as Joaquin backed off slightly, but the smirk on his lips remained. Had things been different, she might have dared him to do it, just to give her an excuse to knock his feet out from under him. But right now she could hardly sit up straight without her lung burning.

"I'm starting to wonder whether you even intend to do it yourself," Joaquin replied, turning back to the front of the shuttle.

"I'm not going to kill her." Khan's tone was dull, monotonous. She might have even ventured to call it exasperated.

What a goddamn relief. She bit the inside of her cheek.

"After we send this com burst, we won't need her anymore, Khan. She's extra baggage."

There was no response. There was no response for several hours.

The burning in Madelyn's lung subsided again to a dull throb. Sometimes her head felt lighter than the rest of her and she wanted to lie down, but didn't dare for fear she'd find herself trapped in a compromising position. When the shuttle dropped out of warp, lurching her from her half-asleep state against the wall, the unmistakable arching blue and white globe of planet Earth flooded the viewscreen, lighting the shuttle cabin with an ethereal glow.

"Alright, this is what's going to happen." Joaquin swung around in his seat and launched himself to his feet again, crossing the length of the shuttle in two strides until he towered over her. "We're going to approach San Francisco, at which point Khan will send a com burst into Starfleet Headquarters. You will broadcast a message warning Starfleet that if they do not comply with our demands, my man on the ground will blow a hole in their infrastructure so large they'll turn it into a national monument and name it after me."

"I'm not threatening anybody—"

"Of course, you know what our demands are. We want our crew back. All of them. Unharmed and in their cryotubes. That's all."

"I'm not going to do this," she repeated, leaning back against the wall. The hand that pulled her up by her neck wasn't even a surprise.

"Joaquin!"

Khan's roar was ignored. She couldn't breathe as Joaquin pulled her across the shuttle by her throat and slammed her down into the control panel. She collapsed backwards into the seat adjacent Khan, gasping for air, fingers clutching for anything just to maintain her grip on consciousness as her chest throbbed.

"I've written out the message on the control panel in front of you," Joaquin continued, his tone having leveled out disturbingly quick. She felt his hand clamp down around her shoulder painfully, but a throaty growl from Khan made it disappear. She looked down at the glowing rectangular panel in front of her, a paragraph full of threatening words and language bearing dangerous implications staring her in the face.

"You have approximately twenty minutes before we reach San Francisco," Joaquin added, his voice noticeably further back in the shuttle. She willed him to go even further. "I suggest you familiarize yourself with my speech."

She took a breath, flinching at the jabbing pain in her side. She must have punctured her lung at some point. She knew Owen had broken one or two ribs. Joaquin might have just finished the job for him.

She reached up to scroll through the box of text, willing herself to focus. She had to stall as long as possible, until at the last possible second, when they were within com range, she'd give them away. She had to warn Starfleet—

Something warm and firm slid across the top of her hand, lurching her attention away. She froze. Khan's fingers curled between her thumb and index finger, wrapping around her wrist until he'd encased her hand completely in his own.

For a second she thought she'd done something wrong. His hand lingered for a moment, fingertips pressing into her palm. He squeezed gently, brushing circles along the inside of her wrist before releasing it, then returned his attention immediately to the shuttle controls. She stared at the top of her hand where his had just been, unsure what to think. When she glanced up at him, he was fixed on the viewscreen, eyes darting away every now and then to look at readings, hands steady on the controls.

"We're almost within com range," he said momentarily.

"Good," Joaquin said behind them. He hadn't seemed to notice Khan's gesture.

They crossed the boundary between day and night, the sun slipping behind the planet's blue sphere. The blue glow that once flooded the compartment disappeared, leaving them in the dark, illuminated only by the controls. Joaquin stormed to the front of the shuttle. "Why the fuck are you taking us the long way around?"

In one swift movement, Khan turned and rose from his seat, then slammed his hand into Joaquin's throat and backed him against the shuttle wall. He squeezed Joaquin's throat until he looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, the other man's hands grappling at Khan.

"Madelyn, I need you to pilot this shuttle."

The request had barely sunk in when Joaquin wrenched free of Khan's grasp and sunk his fingers into his shoulder, tearing fabric and breaking skin instantaneously. Khan groaned through it and drove his fist into the other man's face. Madelyn clambered for the controls.

Her hands were shaking. She had no clue how to fly this thing. It was a modern design, nothing like the one Khan had once shown her how to operate. The first lever she pulled only accelerated them through the air. She cursed, flinching when someone was slammed into the floor behind her. It sounded like they were going to tear the shuttle apart with just a few blows. When she glanced back at them, Khan's bloody face made her stomach twist with alarm.

After trying various options on the touch screen control panel, she managed to figure out how to control the roll and pitch functions. Keeping her other hand on the lever between the pilots' seats, she steered the shuttle haphazardly through the darkness, keeping her eyes on another screen that appeared to show some sort of radar. They were still over two hundred kilometers above Earth's surface, but that number was ticking steadily downwards while their speed wasn't. She tried letting up on the lever in her hand, but then their altitude ticked upwards half a kilometer. Her heart was pounding in her ears.

She glanced over her shoulder again to see Khan lift Joaquin into the air and slam him into the floor. Joaquin snatched Khan's leg out from under him and twisted. There was a sickening crunch and Khan roared, hitting the floor on his back and staying down long enough for Joaquin to pull himself up and drive his elbow into Khan's gut.

Madelyn whirled back around to the controls. A series of warning lights flickered on, pulsating red and white. Their altitude had dropped to one hundred fifty kilometers in a short amount of time, while their speed hadn't changed.

"Chance of fatal impact fifty percent. Readjusting pitch. Standby."

Madelyn stared at the message that flashed onscreen, that blared in her ears in an annoying robotic voice. On one hand, this might be her best option. On the other, Khan had just proven he wasn't working with Joaquin anymore. She tightened her grip on the lever in her fingers and frantically punched a few buttons, hoping for something to change, but only succeeded in turning on the headlights.

"Shit!"

A body crashed into the panel next to her. She scrambled out of the way as the panel sparked and shattered, her heartbeat jumping into overdrive as a blaring alarm filling her ears. Joaquin slammed Khan down again, yanking at his hair and pummeling him with bloody knuckles before they both rolled off and onto the floor. Khan drove his good leg into Joaquin's side.

"Altitude decline reaching dangerous levels. Chance of fatal impact seventy-five percent."

Madelyn clambered back into the pilot's seat, trying to ignore the alarm that signaled the shuttle was out of control, free-falling according to the warning onscreen. The altitude ticker dropped steadily. She could feel the g-forces starting to pull at her, but the artificial gravity systems were still intact, for now. Maybe she could get autopilot to come back on too. She opened what appeared to be a command menu and tried a few combinations. Nothing happened.

"Unable to readjust pitch. One hundred twenty-five kilometers to fatal impact."

The shattered control panel beside her sparked and burned her arm. She barely noticed as Joaquin yanked her up and tore her from her seat.

She was flung across the shuttle, colliding with the wall and slumping to the floor. She gasped at the pain that shot through her lungs when she caught her breath, fighting to push through it as stars flooded her vision. She almost wanted to pass out, just so it wouldn't hurt. She didn't. She managed to see Khan lifting himself off the floor. Jagged, bloody rib bones poked out the side of his torn shirt. His blue eyes glittered through his blood-spattered face, wild with frenzy. He swayed but advanced on Joaquin at a furious limp, who was frantically trying to correct the shuttle's current trajectory.

Madelyn swallowed down the nausea caused by the pain in every breath, watching as Khan pulled Joaquin down backwards and slammed his head into the floor. Then he took Joaquin's jaw in his hands and twisted it upwards violently, until Joaquin screamed. Blood gushed from the tear in his neck, but Khan continued to pull at him, until the screaming was replaced with gurgling and choking. He let Joaquin's body hit the floor with a metallic thud. It twitched and shuddered, and then finally fell still, blood leaking from his torn jugular.

"One hundred kilometers to fatal impact. Emergency measures recommended."

Khan turned from the body and leaned over the control panel, breathing hard despite the bones jutting from his side. His bodyweight was focused on the leg that wasn't pierced by a fractured shinbone. His fingers flew across the console before he slammed his fist down, creating another shower of sparks. The alarm sped up. It was the only thing she could hear now.

"Ninety kilometers to fatal impact."

On the viewscreen, a warning message glowed blue and red. Khan turned and looked at her, falling back suddenly against the control panel, his face betraying his shock. His arm was shaking as his bloody hand left a red trail across the shattered glass. She couldn't take her eyes off his broken ribs, off the blood leaking down his pants and onto his boots. His chest heaved.

"Eighty kilometers to fatal impact."

The shuttle began to rattle and shudder. Madelyn reached for the wall to steady herself. There wasn't a hint of animosity on his face. Only barely withheld agony. She realized he was losing a lot of blood, probably more than he'd ever lost in his life. More than he'd ever thought he was capable of losing.

"Seventy kilometers to fatal impact."

She gritted her teeth and made her way towards him, glancing up at the viewscreen as the warning message flickered and disappeared, leaving them in the dark. Wherever they were going to crash, it was still night, and at this speed it would be instant and painless.

"Sixty kilometers to fatal impact."

The shaking grew worse and the floor tilted. She grappled for a handhold in the wall but she was too late. Artificial gravity must have shut down. She careened across the floor, hands scraping broken glass. When she hit the control panel, it was like her lung ignited.

"Fifty kilometers to fatal impact."

She gasped for air, not even caring that Khan's hand was pulling at her shirt until she was forced to crawl up next to him. The shaking was growing unbearable, every vibration soaking through her body and triggering every injured nerve. She knew she was clutching at him. She had nothing else to hold onto.

"Forty kilometers to fatal impact."

His arm circled her body, pulling her tightly against him. Her hand slid into something wet and she pulled away. Blood. She was so close to him she could hear him struggling to breathe, each one more hoarse than the next.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. She felt his breath on her face, smelled the metallic red liquid he was losing more of every second. She didn't want to believe him.

"Thirty kilometers to fatal impact."

"Shut up!" she screamed at the computer. She was living a nightmare and she wasn't going to wake up. Her body felt like it was being torn to shreds from the shaking. She put her other arm tightly around his neck, burrowing her face into him. If he was the last thing she touched before she died, then at least she wouldn't have died alone. And he was going to die with her.

Poetic justice, she thought.

"Twenty kilometers to fatal impact."

She braced herself against the wall, tightening her fistful of his shirt, willing the ground to come rushing up to meet them and end this. End all of this.

Finally.

"Ten kilometers to fatal impact."

"Madely—" he choked out. She shut her eyes, unable to hear whatever he was trying to say as the clamor around them turned to white noise. Their bodies slammed into the front of the shuttle, Joaquin's corpse rolling across the floor towards them. Madelyn tried to kick it away, but paused. Everything had gone silent, rushing air dissipating into a disturbing calm, broken only by occasionally creaking metal.

Khan breathed erratically beside her as she pulled her arm out from between him and the wall, slowly and painfully regaining her bearings. Her head throbbed and her chest felt perpetually on fire. Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself up onto the control panel to look outside. The shuttle's lights cast an eerie glow through a cloud of rising air bubbles, but past it there was only darkness.

"Fuck, we're still alive," she breathed. She slid back down to the floor, the overwhelming shock shaking her senses.

"Madelyn, the hatch," Khan breathed.

She glanced at him as he began to gather himself. "What?"

"The hatch needs to be opened now," he rasped. "Otherwise we'll be trapped and crushed by the pressure as we sink, if we don't run out of oxygen first."

Of course. She scrambled back up to the controls, eyes darting across the shattered panels. She wasn't going to die on this fucking shuttle.

Khan's agonized grunt tore her attention away when she failed to find the mechanism for opening the hatch. He grappled for the console, swaying as he did, almost crushing her when he lost his balance. She was too shocked at his condition to notice. The left side of his jaw was cracked and the skin broken, sending crooked rivulets of blood down his neck. His shirt was torn and bloodied, especially lower where several jagged ribs protruded from his skin in the wrong direction. And then there was his leg, shinbone jutting out of his calf. Joaquin had literally broken him apart.

Never in her life had she ever seen him look so fragile.

And it scared her.

"The hatch," he repeated. His hand crunched broken glass as he fought to maintain his balance while he reached under the console with his other hand. "Manual override," he uttered between breaths. He pulled it with a click.

There was a hiss and a steady stream of water slipped between the small gap that formed between the hatch door and doorway. The stream became a rushing torrent that forced the hatch open from all sides until it snapped back with a clang against the interior wall. The compartment filled with freezing water. Madelyn knew when Khan's arm slid around her. She fought to get her breath back, gulping down as much oxygen as she could as he pulled her towards the hatch, fighting against the deluge that quickly engulfed them.

Freezing salt water stung her eyes until she could hardly see, and the cold numbed the pain and spurred her forward. She made Khan go first, but by the time she'd slipped out behind him she could feel the shuttle pulling at her as it sank into the darkness. She tore her arms through the water, every movement pressing her cracked ribs into her lung. The only thing she could do was keep going up.

She gained on Khan with every stroke, until she was even with his face and saw that his eyes were open but distant. He'd stopped swimming, and she could taste his blood in the water. Her mind on the edge of a panic attack, she pulled at him, yanking at his shirt, taking his head in her hands and shaking him. He was fading in and out of consciousness and she needed him conscious.

She just needed him conscious.

He finally started to push through the water again, taking some of the weight off her screaming limbs. She thrashed her legs, kicking up towards the surface as her lungs took on water. She couldn't tell how far it was, only that she had to get there if it meant passing out on arrival.

Finally, they broke through to the cold air above. She gasped and choked, swallowing as much air as she could until her lungs only burned from her injuries. Khan was barely above the surface and she grappled at him, desperately trying to keep his face above the water. Nausea curled into her stomach as her hands brushed naked ribs. She forced it to stay down. There was nothing to hold onto up here but him and he was barely lucid.

Large waves rolled around them under the starless sky, forcing them up and over and down again, splashing water into her face, making her choke and sputter. She couldn't hold her breath, but she couldn't breathe without taking in more water. She pulled Khan up again, fighting to stay above the surface with his weight. Her adrenaline was waning and she could feel the cold seeping into her bones. Eventually she would get too cold to move and then she would sink and Khan would sink with her, unless by some miracle he gained a second wind. But it wouldn't matter because there was nowhere to go out here in the dark amidst the rolling, freezing waves. There was nowhere to go but down.

The thought passed through her head that she was going to drown. She was going to freeze to death among the waves or run out of energy and she and Khan were going to drown. And then a flash of blinding white light overwhelmed her and she thought that maybe she already had.