Down The Rabbit Hole
Warnings: Violence.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The decks of the Vengeance were dark and claustrophobic, the air heavy and warm. Even for an Augment. Cassia grit her teeth as a droplet of sweat glided down her spine beneath the tight-fitting shirt.
On a ship designed for minimal crew, most areas were not outfitted with the environmental control systems necessary to ensure comfort, relying on the natural cold of space to prevent the engines from overheating this deep into the ship. Only the bridge would have full environmental systems.
That was a design flaw if ever she saw one. She idly pondered passing comment on that fact, but by the grim, determined look on her lover's face, she doubted it would be welcome. There was a time and a place for her smart mouth and this was not it.
Besides, she needed to focus. Vengeance was so close; she could almost taste it on the tip of her tongue as they jogged through the empty Engineering level, phasers at the ready.
"Umm, I don't know about anybody else, but shouldn't we be running about now?" Scotty inquired pointedly. "Or, you know, using a turbolift?"
"We can't," was all Khan said, as the two Augments didn't bother looking back at their human companions. "Too dangerous."
"Dangerous?" the Scotsman spat incredulously. "I'll tell you what's dangerous! In three minutes, they're going to have full power…and we're walking!?"
"The turbolifts are easily tracked and Marcus would have use in a cage," Khan deigned to explain, pausing just a moment at a workstation to check the power levels. Cassia kept her phaser ready but glanced at the readouts herself. They had two and a half minutes left. "This path runs adjacent to the engine room. They know they won't be able to use their weapons here without destabilising the warp core which gives us the advantage."
"So I hope you boys are ready for some good old-fashioned brawling," Cassia breathed, with a predatory grin at their two companions, the Scotsman panting for breath and looking torn between bemusement and awe, Kirk eying her with an oddly anticipatory gleam. He enjoyed a good fight as much as she did, it seemed.
"Where did you find these two?" Scotty muttered, as the two Augments turned away and led the way further into the ship.
"Long story," Kirk muttered, lengthening his strides to keep up.
The very shadows felt threatening to Cassia, as she ran along beside her lover, her breathing deep and regular, her muscles easily falling to that familiar rhythm of running. It was one constant in her life at least.
Ever since Spock had melded with her, she'd felt off-balance. Distant, blurred, snatches of her buried humanity whispered and echoed in her mind, unlocked by the Vulcan's touch, and she burned with both pain and hatred for that.
But, she was an Augment, a superior being. She hid it from all eyes, even her lover's. She would not let this destroy her.
She glanced sideways to him, tall and strong, his face half in shadow in the dark corridors. She wondered what he planned after Marcus was dead. No doubt, Kirk would try to prevent the Admiral's death and she had a fairly good notion of what Khan planned to do to retrieve their people.
She only hoped his vengeance would be sated with such a victory. She truly hoped she would not be forced to intervene on the humans' behalf, and betray her lover. He had changed, from the man she had known, his darker, savage nature controlling him whereas before, he had always controlled it.
Before, when they fought together, it had always been for their survival, or because their survival depended upon their savagery and meeting the expectations of the men who created them, in their vanity and folly. When the threat had passed, that savagery had slumbered, beneath the surface maybe, but dormant until that foolish human tried to assassinate them both. She remembered those days of peace with an inward sigh, relishing the freedom they possessed, at last, and the chance to choose their own destinies.
At least, she had then. Now, she only saw it as further proof that she, and her brethren, had never possessed the freedom to choose their own paths. As Marla, she had been forced into becoming Cassia. As Cassia, she'd had no choice but to kill to survive, and it had been Singh's madness that created in her, and the others, to thirst to dominate, to rule. And as Cassandra, her every move, her every choice, had been dictated and manipulated by Admiral Marcus, waiting for the day he would use her against Khan.
And now…she didn't know who or what she was. Despite Khan's certainty, and her own desires, more lingered beneath the surface. She was not Marla McGivers anymore, and Cassandra Mason had been a lie, a story of normality she had long ceased to belong in, yet she was not Cassia either. Cassia would not have fired in anger upon her lover after the death of a human, nor would she have thought twice about abandoning the away team on Qo'noS to find Khan. She had used them, yes, but she had also defended them, fought beside them. As she was now, even if their motives and objectives would, no doubt, diverge.
So who was she? Cassia didn't know.
She was torn from her reverie by the worried voice of Scotty. "I don't mean to tempt fate here, but where is everybody?"
"The ship is designed to be flown by a minimal crew, one if necessary," Khan replied curtly.
"One, but that's-?" Scotty was cut off abruptly, as a burly, uniformed man threw himself at them from behind an intersection. Khan caught his arm, throwing him against the wall and delivering a punishing uppercut to his ribcage.
Immediately after that, the cramped corridor was swamped by chaos.
Cassia felt a hand grab her shoulder, as Kirk and Scotty cried out behind her. She twisted the wrist, snarling, before spinning and kicking the guard away. The narrow hallway gave little room for manoeuvre, but her agile movements allowed her some advantage.
She grabbed one assailant, shoving him headfirst against the wall, but the man was tougher than her previous opponents, recovering from the blow and managing to land on of his own across her jaw. Taking the hit, she let the momentum smash her into the wall, before lashing out at him with a backhanded blow, turning and spinning, her leg flowing in a high arc to snap his head sideways, blood spurting from his mouth. He fell to his knees, and Cassia finished him with a roundhouse kick that sent him flying backwards.
The next man foolish enough to attack her punched her hard in the gut, sending her onto her back, but she wrapped her legs around his torso, twisting and driving him to the floor. Grabbing him by the neck, she lifted him high into the air, his hands clawing at hers, as she slowly cut off his oxygen supply.
Nausea assailed her, and she threw him away from her, suddenly sickened. He landed against the wall with a thud, sliding down to join his fellows. She felt no joy, no exhilaration bar the adrenaline in her veins, now. She had expected too, had relished the chance of a fight in the hangar bay, but now, as she stood amongst the chaos, surrounded by her kills, she felt nothing.
Suddenly a familiar hand yanked her into a side corridor, and she jogged along beside Khan, the sounds of the fight receding as Kirk finished off the last. They paused, panting just a little, in an alcove, listening for sounds of pursuit.
"We haven't got much time," Khan hissed. "I need you to listen, Cassia."
She nodded, stowing her phaser in her waistband, pushing aside her conflict to listen, looking up into her lover's eyes, glowing with determination and ruthlessness.
"Once we get to the bridge, Kirk will no doubt stun us after Marcus and his men are neutralised. You know as well as I that their phasers stun setting will have no effect, but we must play along. Just long enough for Kirk to drop his defences," he told her quickly and quietly. She nodded.
"You're going to use him, Scotty and Marcus's daughter as leverage over Commander Spock, to regain our family," she murmured certainly, and he nodded. She was about to ask him what came after, hoping her suspicions would not be proven correct, when they heard the sounds of footsteps, and knew Kirk and Scotty were close.
Wordlessly, Khan stepped out to meet them, pulling his phaser, as she went to his side. "This way," he murmured, turning and running through an intersection, Cassia at his side, Kirk and Scotty following just a little too far behind to be inconspicuous. It seemed Khan was right.
She knew Kirk was determined to see Khan punished for the attack on Starfleet, was not surprised that he intended to betray Khan, but then she suspected he expected the same thing from Khan. What a tangled web we weave…
They finally made it to Deck One, carefully jogging down the corridors, covering all the intersections and doorways between the four of them, when the lights came on with a whirring sound. The Vengeance had regained full power.
They sprinted down the final corridor, making the bridge just as Cassia heard Marcus give the order to re-target the Enterprise.
The room exploded with a cacophony of pained cries and shouts of alarm, and the sound of phaser fire, as they opened fire. Out the corner of her eye, Cassia saw Marcus's daughter elbow her captor in the face, clearly taking their side, as all the Section 31 agents on the bridge dropped like flies before them.
A tense calm settled, as the only people left conscious were Cassia, Khan, Kirk, Scotty, Carol and Admiral Marcus. As one, the two Augments' turned to stare down at Marcus, as the desire for vengeance overwhelmed the conflict in Cassia's mind, and only the need to kill remained.
He sat in the Captain's chair, proud and defiant, his eyes showing his unease as he stared at the two Augments, and she was gratified to see the fear in his eyes, growing like a cancer, fear of their rightful retribution for his crimes against them.
Cassia stepped forward, her phase raised, but let herself fall as a burning sensation against her shoulder knocked her down, hitting the cold metal of the desk hard. She felt Khan go down beside her and knew that he had been right, that Kirk had done exactly what Khan had said he would, used them and then betrayed them when they ceased to be useful. She wondered why she was even surprised.
Kirk had done exactly what they would have done in his place.
She dimly heard the slightly heavier footsteps of Scotty stride over to stand guard over her and her somnolent lover, as she made sure only to open her eyes a microscopic amount, enough to see the glitter of Khan's eyes through the veil of his lashes. She waited for the signal to attack, as Kirk and Marcus spoke, the younger human's voice cold, calm and collected as the elder grew ever angrier and hysterical in his justifications for his actions.
"If I'm not in charge, then our entire way of life is decimated. So if you want me off this ship, you'd better kill me…" Marcus shouted, like a raging bull faced with a tranquilliser. A feeling of grim, vicious anticipation swept over her, as she lay limp and prone beneath Scotty's distracted attention, her lover still and unmoving.
She would gladly do the job herself.
"I'm not going to kill you, sir. But I could stun your arse and drag you out of that chair. I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter," Kirk replied, still so cold and calm. She had to hand it to him, he was very good.
She heard Carol Marcus's affirmative response to Kirk's concerned question, and saw Khan's hand tighten into a fist. Now, then.
She flipped herself up from the floor at the same time Khan leapt to his feet and tackled Scotty to the floor, knocking the engineer unconscious in one blow. He leapt over the console, hitting Kirk squarely in the chest as his phaser clattered to the ground.
Spotting Marcus making a run for the turbolift, Cassia leapt across the bridge, ignoring the cries of pain from Kirk as Khan roared and battered the human into submission.
Carol Marcus, the foolish girl, tried to block her way. "Please, no. Wait!" she gasped, but Cassia paid her little heed. She grabbed the human girl and threw her against a bulkhead, the scientist hitting her head and slumping to the ground, unconscious.
"Admiral Marcus," she purred, as he turned to face her, eyes wide with fear and hatred. "Going somewhere?"
He swung for her, but she grabbed his wrist and snapped it back, feeling a vicious surge of satisfaction when he cried out in pain. Releasing him for a split second, she kicked out at his knee joint, letting her full strength free for a moment, effectively severing the tendons of his right knee, as he collapsed to his knees, screaming hoarsely.
With a contemptuous glare, she stepped around Marcus's kneeling, whimpering form, and took hold of his neck, holding him tightly as Khan rose from his fight with Kirk, the human gasping for breath, too winded to move.
Khan met her eye with a fiercely predatory, savage gleam, as he stalked across the bridge, ignoring Kirk's coughing, gasping protests as he fought to rise and regain his breath.
"You took them from me, you took her from me," he snarled at the injured Admiral, his eyes dark with murderous intent, as he raised his hands to the human's head. He met her eye, and she nodded, just once, as he looked back down on the cowering human between them. "You exploited our power, our intellect. You made us slaves, foolish human. You should have learned the lesson of our creators' fates."
"We are slaves to no one," Cassia growled, releasing Marcus's neck to splay her fingers over Khan's. With a shared look, they both began to press their hands together, Marcus screaming as the pressure built, his skull cracking from the strain. Khan snarled, all pretences, all veneers dropped, revealing the savage warrior beneath, defending his family and taking vengeance for their, and his, suffering.
"You should have let us sleep," Khan growled, as Marcus screamed one last time.
Silence fell, the bridge strewn with the unconscious bodies of Section 31 agents, as Cassia released Marcus's prone, bloodied body, Khan doing the same. The silence was oddly strange after the crack and tearing of bone and skin, and she distastefully wiped the blood on her hands away, on the material of her trousers.
A hand, soft and tender, on her cheek prompted her to look up, into Khan's eyes, grimly satisfied. Their vengeance was complete, or at least Cassia hoped so.
Khan leant in, his lips brushing hers, as she willingly kissed him, one of the softest that had ever passed between them, his forehead resting on hers for a split second after their lips parted, before he drew himself up. She nodded to him, they still had work to do.
Now it was time to recover their family.
Khan turned away, recovering Kirk's lost phaser from the deck, and grabbing the human by the neck, hauling him upright.
"You bastard!" he snarled weakly, struggling in Khan's hold but the Augment just tightened his grip until Kirk was too busy struggling to breathe to fight.
"He harmed what is mine, and would have killed them all, and your own crew, Kirk," Khan snarled, pressing the muzzle of his stolen phaser to Kirk's neck. "I merely took what was rightfully mine: revenge."
"That won't…undo…what he did," Kirk panted defiantly.
"No, it won't," Khan agreed softly. "But now, he will never harm my family again."
And with that, he dragged Kirk in front of the view screen, before turning back to Cassia. "Hail the Enterprise. Time to finish this, once and for all."
She nodded, striding past the limp, unconscious figures of Scotty and Carol Marcus, to the communications console, her fingers flying over the touchpad, as the image of Commander Spock and the bridge of the Enterprise filled the view screen.
"I'm going to make this very simple for you-" Khan began coldly.
"Captain!" Spock called, surprised and distressed, even for a Vulcan, as Cassia watched her lover closely.
"- Your crew for my crew," her lover finished, ignoring the brief interruption.
"You betrayed us," Spock stated, stepping away from the pilot's console and Sulu, to stare balefully at the two Augments on screen.
"Oh, you are smart, Mr Spock," Khan replied scornfully, just as Kirk made one final attempt at defiance, calling out to his First Officer not to negotiate with Khan, before the Augment struck him down with the butt of his phaser. The Vulcan started forward, impotence sparking frustration and concern, as he stared at them through the view screen. "Mr Spock, give me my crew."
"And what will you do when you get them?" the Vulcan asked, frowning. Cassia inhaled, inaudibly, but she waited, hoping, praying to a deity she had long stopped believing in….
"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished. Drop your shields!" Khan replied, calmly and without noticing the growing resignation in his lover's eyes, as she watched him, retaining her cool façade even as her mind raced for a way out.
The time for that was over. But she knew now was not the time to confront him about it; no, once their family was safely onboard, and the Enterprise crew safely out of harm's way, then she could confront him and persuade him to a different path.
Of course, this had to happen. My damned 'humanity' had to make a reappearance now…
The truth was, the moment those words left Khan's mouth, confirming her suspicions, something, a voice as strong as the one that had stopped her abandoning the Enterprise crew on Qo'noS, shouted in denial within her. She could not let this happen. Their time was over.
Now she had to convince Khan of that. Marcus was dead, the threat eliminated. With the Vengeance and their crew, they could leave, find a distant quadrant of the galaxy and settle, or explore. The time of the reign of the Augments was over, they were needed no more.
But she had to pick her moment. Arguing with Khan while their people were still onboard the Enterprise in those torpedoes, in front of Spock and the crew of the Enterprise was not it.
She tuned back into the conversation, as Khan spoke again, chilled by the bestiality she saw in his eyes. "Shall I destroy you, Mr Spock? Or will you give me what I want?" he asked, as she shivered. She knew the savagery, the darkness of their natures, had known it from the day she awoke from the augmentation procedure, under Singh's watchful eye, but this…this was what happened when that darkness, that savagery had no purpose, no outlet, but was prodded and poked until it exploded with destructive precision. Marcus had all but driven Khan insane during those years he was held captive, a slave to Marcus's designs and the threat of annihilation for their family. She uneasily wondered if she could even reach him, but she had to try.
"We have no transporter capabilities-" onscreen, Spock was clearly playing for time, but Khan was not to be fooled.
"Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional. Drop. Your. Shields!" he barked in reply, his patience beginning to run low. Silently, Cassia moved away from the console, to Khan's side, as Spock's eyes narrowed at the sight of her.
She nodded imperceptibly.
"If I do so, I have no guarantee that you will not destroy the Enterprise," the Vulcan stated, after a moment, as Cassia's eyes glanced towards Khan, watching him intently, while Kirk moaned at their feet, barely conscious as Carol Marcus too began to stir.
"Well, let's play this out logically then, Mr Spock," Khan replied silkily, pleasure dripping from his tone as he enjoyed the resignation and defeat in the eyes of his opponent, their discourse as chess game in which Khan was quickly emerging the winner. "Firstly, I will kill your Captain to demonstrate my resolve. Then, if yours holds, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew."
"If you destroy our ship, you will also destroy your own people," Spock pointed out calmly.
"Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. I will target your life support systems, located behind the aft nacelle and after every single person aboard your ship suffocates, I will walk over your cold corpses to recover my people. Now, shall we begin?"
Cassia felt a thrill, of both cold and excitement, rush down her spine and pool at its base at his words. Ruthlessness and drive was something she more than understood, she had taken a part in killing Marcus, in neutralising Scotty and Carol Marcus, in manipulating Kirk and his crew in her efforts to find Khan again, and before, so many years ago, during the Wars…but this…
She could not allow this to continue. This was not Khan, the proud, noble tyrant history had labelled him, nor the possessive, loving man she knew, but a mad, insane creature who would destroy everything while lying to himself and to others. This wasn't about Starfleet, or Marcus, anymore. This was just about watching the universe burn for the sake of it.
That had not been their way. They didn't have to do this anymore.
Inhaling through tight lungs, she glanced once more at the screen, meeting Spock's eyes, and nodded once more, a tiny inclination of her head that any but Spock or her lover would miss. "Lower shields," Spock gave in, at her gesture.
"A wise choice, Mr Spock," Khan purred, kicking the newly awakened Kirk in his solar plexus, flipping him onto his back as he walked to one of the consoles, running a sensor scan on the Enterprise, as Cassia went to assist him, ignoring Kirk spluttering and coughing for breath at her feet.
"I see all 72 torpedoes are still in their tubes. If they are not mine, Commander, I will know it!" Khan barked, eying the Vulcan onscreen warningly.
"Vulcans do not lie. The torpedoes are yours," he replied coldly, and Khan nodded to Cassia. She activated the transporters, beaming the torpedoes into the cargo bay they had entered from outside, feeling a swell of warmth in her chest as she realised that their family was safe once more, almost making her forget the difficult battle still ahead.
Changing Khan's mind.
"Thank you, Mr Spock," her lover breathed, his tone tinged with a hint of relief, but mostly triumph, as he turned and strode towards the Captain's chair.
"I have fulfilled your terms, now fulfil mine," the Vulcan demanded. With a nod from Khan, Cassia transported the three humans, but not before Khan spoke directly to Kirk, Spock's eyes flickering with resignation and grim determination at his words.
"Well, Kirk, it seems apt to return you to your crew," Khan purred silkily. "After all, no ship should go down without her Captain!"
As soon as the energy ribbons from the transporters faded, before the transmission to the Enterprise faded out, Cassia gathered her courage, stepped forward and said, in as commanding and unyielding a voice as she could muster, "No."
Khan ignored her, locking phasers and torpedoes onto the crippled Enterprise, as Cassia watched in unfamiliar horror. With a snarl, she subverted Khan's commands, locking him out of the system, as the phasers deactivated and the explosions that rent the hull of the ship opposite them stopped, but even she could see the damage to the ship was extensive.
"Cassia?" Khan's voice, cool and questioning, hiding how furious he really was, murmured against her ear, as she took her life in her hands and turned, hands on the console behind her, facing Khan as he stared at her, with betrayal and murderous rage in his eyes. "What have you done?"
"I said, no," she repeated. "This ends here, Khan."
"Yes it will, Cassia," he replied eagerly. "We will destroy all those that threaten us, and it will end here. First Kirk, then Earth, just as soon as you give me back access to the Vengeance's computer."
"I said, no!" she barked. "This, destroying the Enterprise, retaking the Earth, is not necessary. We do not need to do this."
Khan glared at her, as she continued determinedly.
"Marcus is dead. The Vengeance is ours. We have our family. Now it's time to go, to get away from all of this, where no one will find us again. Endless war will not give us peace or freedom, not this time-"
"It is what we are, Cassia," he suddenly interrupted in a snarl, taking hold of her and jerking her into his arms. "It is who we are."
"Not anymore," she returned heatedly. "The humans have made peace for themselves, their technology and civilisation advanced far beyond what we recall. Marcus and his ilk are a minority, and the humans are not alone. Remember how their numbers were able to overwhelm even our powers? Now they have all the power and the numbers of countless planets at their call. They need us no more, and now it is time for us to choose who we will be."
"Your reawakened humanity makes you weak," Khan sneered, as Cassia's jaw firmed and she raised her head proudly.
"No, it gives me clarity for the first time in centuries," she snapped back. "All our lives, Khan, we have been told what we are, what we must do. We were snatched from our human lives by oppressors who saw us as nothing more than experiments, to be discarded if we failed, or developed further if we proved viable. When we became Augments, we were nothing more than slaves, pawns to our creators, and the only way we could have freedom was to take control, but even then, we still adhered to the identities forced on us by Singh and his kind. And now again, with Marcus. All this time, we have been manipulated into following the same pattern, the same identity, again and again, when the freedom to choose our own paths, our own freedom was right there in front of us. We have it in our grasp now, our family is safe, we have a ship faster than any in the Federation, or any of the Empires. This is our last chance to take it."
Khan stared at her like he had never seen her before, and even she was inwardly shocked by the passionately vehement speech that had just poured forth from her very soul, it felt.
"When we ruled, you never killed any of the humans under your care unless they deserved it," she breathed. "Marcus deserved death for what he did to you, to me and to our family. Kirk does not, the crew of the Enterprise does not, Earth does not. Let them go, let all of this go and come away with me. Stop this now, before we lose everything we have fought so hard to regain."
She stepped closer into him, feeling his breath shuddering against her cheek, as he closed his eyes and leaned into her, affected by her words. She enclosed him in her arms, needing his strength as much as he needed her, her lips pressing mutely against his cheek.
"What do you choose?" she breathed. "Because if you choose this path, here and now, I cannot follow you."
"You pledged yourself to me, for all eternity," he told her roughly, his eyes dark when they met hers, but the fire in them had dimmed a little, to Cassia's ever-increasing hope.
"That vow still holds, and always will. But I am not your slave, to blindly obey you in all things, Khan," she stroked his cheek. "Nor to let you make a mistake that could destroy us all. You will always have me, even if you hate me forever after this day. I love you."
"I could…never hate you," he replied quietly, almost stiltedly, as his forehead pressed against hers, their faces rubbing against one another intently, their lips brushing every few seconds.
"Come away with me. Be with me and our family, once more, no more fighting, no more wars, just us. And true freedom at last," she whispered. His arms tightened around her waist, as he opened his mouth to speak-
Just then an explosion rocked the Vengeance, flinging them forward, into the main consoles, as the computers blared warnings and the shields began to fail.
Cassia gasped as realisation set in, as she scrambled for a handhold on the suddenly wildly pitching bridge, as the ship floundered, the explosions destabilising the warp core.
The torpedoes. Their family…
Her cry of despair and denial rose with Khan's, as they screamed their grief and their rage to the cold expanse of space.
To be continued...