Deal With the Devil

"Sir," Kirk cried out, "My crew was just…just following my orders. I take…I take full responsibility for my actions. But they were mine, and they were mine alone."

"No," Victoria moved to his side, taking his hand in her own, "They were OURs," she looked at him, not about to let him face Marcus alone for two very good reasons.

The first was that…they could have stopped him from going after Harrison. The Fleet in general couldn't strike at the man, couldn't have entered the Klingon space to capture him or attack him. They could have used that as an argument against Kirk doing it, informed other heads of Starfleet what was happening…file a report like Spock had. They could have detained him, locked him up, knocked him out with that pinch that Spock could do and held him back till they worked out what best to do. Hell they could have mutinied if they really felt in necessary. There were SO many different things they could have done to stop Kirk but they hadn't, ALL of them, in doing so, were agreeing to go with Kirk when they easily could have refused of even left the ship, like Scotty had.

What was worse…she knew there were things SHE could have done to keep him from going after Khan and leading to this situation. She had more power over Kirk than his own mother seemed to have at times, certainly more power than the rules of the Fleet. He listened to her, he valued her opinion, he cared about her…it was the reason he was so dead set on getting Khan in the first place. Not only was Pike his recruiter…but HER father. She'd been devastated and Kirk had felt it his duty to see her avenged. And while she felt it keenly, the desire to see Khan destroyed for killing her father, she knew that it wasn't the right thing, not now. If Khan was openly attacking he crew, it would be one thing, but what she and Kirk had been prepared to do was as much murder as what Khan had done. If she'd just realized it sooner, she could have simply asked him to stop.

And he would have.

But she hadn't so this was partially her fault as well and she was stand by him, especially for the second reason. Her mother didn't ever stand by her father whenever he had to made difficult choices or decisions. The more and more her father got involved in the Fleet, the higher up he worked in terms of titles, the less her mother stood by him. She knew how difficult it could be to be captain, to be responsible for all the lives under you, to know that every single decision didn't just affect you anymore but an entire ship's worth of people… and Kirk was trying his best. It was the least she could do to stand at his side no matter what, to show him that she believed in him and that she was with him through it all.

She was not her mother, she would not abandon the man she loved. Come hell or high water (or torpedoes) she was going to stand beside him as he faced down Marcus.

Kirk let out a small breath, seeming to gather all that from the look Victoria sent him but was unable to smile at her for it as the situation really was far too dire. He settled for squeezing her hand in return and turned back to Marcus, "If I transmit Khan's location to you now, all that I ask is that you spare them. Please, sir. I'll do anything you want. Just let them live."

Marcus was silent a long while, seeming to be contemplating Kirk's moving words but Victoria only felt a weight settle in her stomach, a horrible feeling of foreboding hitting her at the man's expression. For some reason she couldn't help but think that the man was just trying to drag it out, to give Kirk false hope. She wasn't sure if she might have seen that expression on the man's face before when she'd been younger and was associating the two now, or if she just didn't think Marcus had a decent bone left in his body.

It was probably both.

Though her fears were confirmed when Marcus remarked, "That's a hell of an apology," and followed it with, "But, if it is any conciliation...I was never going to spare your crew. Fire at will."

The entire Bridge stood there in stunned silence as the monitor just flickered off.

"Coward won't watch," Victoria muttered darkly from beside Kirk at how Marcus had cut the transmission off before he could see his handiwork up close. He squeezed her hand even more and looked at her, devastated.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, before turning to face the rest of the startled crew, all of them quiet, tears in their eyes, "I'm so sorry…"

Sulu looked down at his scans of the enemy ship, watching in horror as the ship powered up, and closed his eyes, waiting for the blast…but nothing came. He frowned and opened his eyes again to see his scan blinking with a report that made his heart restart and himself begin to breathe again, "Their weapons are powered down, Sir!"

It was a miracle.

"Enterprise, can you hear me?" a voice called over the comms., making Victoria laugh, it wasn't a miracle, it was Scotty!

"Scotty?" Kirk stared up as though expecting Scotty to be on the ceiling for a moment before recalling the comms..

"Guess what I found behind Jupiter," Scotty chuckled.

"The Vengeance?" Victoria guessed with a laugh, so relieved not just to hear from the Scotsman but to know that he'd stopped the Vengeance from attacking them, giving them time to come up with a plan.

"Aye lovely lady," Scotty laughed, "Take that Perfect Hair!" he called, "You cannae hit me now!"

Kirk rolled his eyes and shook his head though he had a smile on his face despite Scotty calling Victoria yet another name. Sometimes, if Scotty got a little too bold (though they both knew that Scotty never said any of the names he called Victoria with any true seriousness), he'd give the man a whack on the back of the head for it. Or throw something at him. Or grab the man by the ear and drag him off. Or threaten to give him a demerit. Or…well, there was a lot of things that he did whenever Scotty called Victoria a pet name.

"I snuck onboard," Scotty explained quickly, "And, seeing as I've just committed an act of treason against a Starfleet admiral, I'd really like to get off this bloody ship. Now beam me out!"

"Just hold tight a minute Scotty," Victoria smiled.

"You're miracle worker," Kirk agreed, "We're little low on power right now. Standby, standby."

"What do you mean low on power?" Scotty cut in, "What happened to the Enterprise?! Please tell me you did not let the Captain near the engineering controls my Crafty Crafter?"

"Crafty Crafter?" Victoria actually almost snorted at that, Scotty must have been running out of names, he always tried to have different names for her but after a year of it, he seemed to finally be running out.

"Just tell me that you protected the engines from Mr. Muscles!"

"For once Scotty, it wasn't James's fault…"

"Hey!" Kirk shouted.

"Well then who…" Scotty suddenly cut himself off, "I'll call you back!"

"Scotty?" Victoria frowned as the comm. went to static. She glanced at Kirk, worried for Scotty and he gave her a nod, deciding what to do.

"Spock, our ship, how is she?" Kirk turned to the Vulcan.

"Our options are limited, Captain," Spock reported, "We cannot fire and we cannot flee."

He let out a breath and looked at Victoria, "Any chance we can fix the ship before they get their power back up?"

She shook her head, "I can try," she offered, "I might be able to boost our shields a little more, maybe get the engines going enough to get us safely to Earth, but we won't be able to do much. I'd have to see the engines first to be sure."

"Right, then you go check them out and then head back here, I'll…"

"No," she cut in.

"What?"

"James," she gave him a look, "I know what you're going to do," she said quietly, "I'm NOT letting you do it by yourself."

It wasn't hard to work out what Kirk was planning to do with Scotty trapped on the other ship along with Carol too. He was going to go after them. If the ship couldn't move, then Kirk would move himself to the other ship. Scotty, since he was there and roaming around, would be able to get the doors open, maybe to an airlock. But once he got in…he'd need to find a way out, he'd need to find a way to get Carol back too and probably arrest Marcus…which meant he'd need to know the inner layout of the ship.

The only one who knew that…was Khan.

He was the LAST person she was EVER going to let Kirk go anywhere with on his own. She'd jumped off a shuttle and onto a planet, she could do it, there was no fire between them and the Vengeance, she'd be fine. She could go and she could do it. She didn't trust Khan at all and she was never going to risk Kirk's safety with the man.

"You have to," he told her, putting his hands on her shoulders, "Because I'm appointing you acting Captain."

She blinked and stared at him, a cross between exasperated that he was doing that to her again and startled that he was essentially overlooking Spock, his First Officer, the one who was meant to take over when he wasn't there, for Captain, "You're joking…" was all she settled for, it fit both her feelings she thought.

"Captain," Spock took a step forward, able to hear them despite being so quiet, his hearing was exceptional after all, "It is not typical for a First Officer to be…"

But Kirk ignored him for a moment, looking at Victoria, "If the roles were switched with the volcano, we know what would have happened," was all he had to say for her to understand his reasons for appointing her as captain.

If the roles had been reversed, they were almost sure Spock would have let him die in the volcano for his beloved Prime Directive. Well…that was probably a bit harsh, she would NOT have let Spock allow Kirk to die, no one would, they'd argue, they'd convince him to help Kirk, they'd have gotten him to rescue the captain…they WOULD have seen Kirk safe once more, but not without the challenge of getting through to Spock.

"I need someone I know will break whatever rules they have to," Kirk added to her, "The one time it ends up being a good thing right?" he gave her a soft chuckle, reaching out to touch her cheek, "And…I hope you will, do what you have to to get me back because um…" he glanced around, seeing people were watching him and returned his gaze to her, "There's something I need to tell you when this is over. Ok?"

She let out a breath but nodded, "Ok."

She was going to hate this, SO MUCH, she really did NOT want to be captain at all. Especially not now, not when it was going to mean being responsible for a broken ship, an entire crew, a leaking warp core, two of their crew held as hostages in a way, and a captain going off with a known fugitive and murderer…this was going to end in the worst way, she knew, and…she was scared. To be in charge of that, one wrong move and everyone would pay dearly for it. One wrong action and Kirk, Carol, and Scotty would be trapped.

But Kirk needed her to do this for him, he needed to know that there was someone he could trust watching out for him. He trusted Spock, she knew he did, but…he was also aware that the Vulcan would hesitate even if he ultimately ended up breaking the rules, and that hesitation could mean the difference between life and death.

Kirk nodded in return and looked at Spock, "I expect you to help her, Commander," he gave Spock a long look.

"Of course," Spock agreed, feeling…a sting of pain in his chest to realize why Kirk was assigning Victoria to the role of captain instead of himself.

He had no qualms with Victoria, she was a…genuine person. For all her rule breaking and bending, she WAS well versed in the rules and regulations of the Fleet and he had often found himself engaging in intellectually stimulating debates with her, mostly over ethics and the length a rule could be stretched before it was considered broken. She made him question some of the rules he had never thought much on before. Her mind, the way she found loopholes in phrasing, it was clearly he result of years with Kirk and needing to get out of trouble, but the results were surprising and very…contemplative for him. He hadn't considered just how some rules almost seemed to contradict other regulations and vice versa. It had surprised the crew, he believed, when they'd seen the two of them engaging in their first debate on the subject, all of them too familiar with Victoria and Kirk's favored method of debate, shouting and arguing. But he and Victoria had merely had a calm, rational discussion, no raised voices, no yelling, no digging remarks, just pure logic.

He would admit that…Victoria and Kirk surprised him after their initial mission together. He had assumed Kirk to be an arrogant, cheating, ignorant man whose lack of care for the rules could only be matched by the size of his ego. Equally he'd thought Victoria a patronizing, violent, reckless woman who was more likely to defend someone in a misconstrued emotional attachment than to see the wrongs said person had done. They both irritated him and…interested him with how different they were to what he'd assumed them to be. Kirk was truly a brilliant strategist, he was a genuinely kind-hearted man who cared for his crew, and his compassion for others made him want to do the right thing for those in need. Yes, he did have an ego, but it was constantly checked by Victoria, her own ridiculous issues were tempered by Kirk as well. Victoria had the potential to be quite the logician, only using violence as a means to prevent more violence before it could actually turn violent, and she actually thought her actions out quite far ahead. She would be just as likely to jump into something as Kirk, but she noticed more than the Captain did and was able to plan a little better for it, take an extra moment or two to truly see a strategy unfolding.

They…surprised him.

"Uhura," Kirk turned to the woman, pulling Spock out of his thoughts, "When you get Scotty back, patch him through."

"Yes, sir," Uhura nodded.

"Mr. Spock, you have the comm.," Kirk told him, "Victoria, go check the engines."

Victoria nodded and headed out of the room, Kirk going after her, only for Spock to follow him as well, "Captain, I strongly object…"

"To what?" Kirk cut in, "I haven't said anything yet."

"Since we cannot take the ship from the outside, the only way we can take it is within and, as a large boarding party would be detected, it is optimum for you take as few members of the crew as possible. You will meet resistance, requiring personnel with advanced combat abilities and innate knowledge of that ship. This indicates that you plan to align with Khan, the very man we were sent here to destroy. Something, I believe, Liaison Pike has worked out as well."

"Yes she has," Kirk nodded as he glanced back to see Victoria disappear around a corner at the other end of the hall, heading for Engineering while he went for the medbay, "And that's exactly why I've appointed her as captain."

Spock blinked, "As a means to force her to remain on the Enterprise."

Kirk sighed, "I do NOT want her anywhere near Khan while on the enemy ship," Kirk agreed, it was the only way he could think to keep her there. He hated to do it, to make her responsible for the crew, for the ship as it was falling apart, it was too much to ask anyone, but…he didn't trust Khan and he knew, he KNEW that if he brought Victoria with him, it would be all too easy for Khan to grab her or use her as leverage or bait or just use her against him. The more distance he could put between her and the man, the safer he'd feel she was, "But make no mistake Spock, I'm not aligning with him, I'm using him. The enemy of my enemy is my friend my."

Spock considered those words as they strode along a bridge, "An Arabic proverb attributed to a prince who has been betrayed and decapitated by his own subjects."

"Still, it's a hell of quote."

"I would like to request, then, that I go with you, Captain."

"No," Kirk shook his head, "I already told you Spock, I need you on the Bridge to help Victoria."

"I can't allow you to do this," Spock argued, "And I believe Victoria would be most appreciative if I were to accompany you than to stay with her. It is, after all, my function aboard this ship to advise you making the wisest decisions possible, something I firmly believe you are incapable doing in this moment."

"You're right," Kirk let out a soft breath, stopping in the middle of a hall to face him, "I'm too overwhelmed," he could admit, "I'm angry, I'm scared, I'm worried…I can't stop thinking about what if it had been Tory that Khan had hit instead of Pike," he swallowed hard, having not even admitted that to Victoria yet, but knowing Spock wouldn't breathe a word of it, "My crew is in danger, my ship is damaged, our warp core is leaking, and my wife is going t be in charge of all of that."

Spock eyed him for calling Victoria his wife yet again.

"And I have to put her in that position," he continued, "What I am about to do…it doesn't make any sense, it's not logical, it is a gut feeling. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I only know what I can do. The Enterprise and her crew needs someone in that chair who knows they're doing."

"And that is Victoria?"

"You're damn right it is," he nodded, "She may hate it, and she may focus on engineering, but she's…" he shook his head, "She's Pike's daughter, she's a natural captain. I wouldn't have done half the things I did if not for her advice Spock. So I need you there…to give HER advice now too. I need you to protect her while I can't. Will you?"

Spock took a deep breath and straightened, nodding, "I will."

Kirk gave him a nod in return and clapped him on the shoulder, "Thank you."

~8~

Kirk half-stormed into the medbay, needing to get to Khan and needing to get them both out of the ship and into the Vengeance as soon as possible, their window of opportunity wouldn't last long according to Victoria and he trusted her knowledge of engineering. If she could work out half a dozen ways to get power back to a starship, safe betting was that the crew of the Vengeance could come up with a dozen.

"Tell me everything you know about that ship," he demanded of Khan, not even giving the man a moment to open his mouth in what he was sure would be some sort of snide greeting.

"Dreadnought Class," Khan listed, "Two times the size, three times the speed, advanced weaponry, modified for minimal crew. Unlike most Federation vessels, it is built solely for combat."

"I will do everything I can to make you answer for what you did to Victoria, to her father, to the other men who died that night," he swore to Khan, "But right now I need your help."

"In exchange for what?" Khan smirked.

Kirk's jaw clenched to have to negotiate with the man, but there was little other choice, "You said you'd do anything for your crew. I can guarantee their safety."

"Captain," he let out a mocking laugh, "You can't even guarantee safety of your own crew."

Kirk looked away at that, covering the revealing move with a call to Bones as he sat there with a ball of brown fur on a small table before him, a syringe in his hands, "Bones, what are you doing with that Tribble?"

"Tribble's dead," Bones replied, "I'm injecting Khan's platelets into the deceased tissues of a necrotic host. Khan's cells regenerate like nothing I've ever seen, I want to know why."

Kirk nodded and turned back to Khan, "You coming with me or not?"

Khan merely grinned in reply.

~8~

"You want to do what?!" Scotty's voice came over the comm. in Kirk's hand as he strode through the halls with Khan, the two men preparing for what was probably going to be the most idiotic space jump in history, "Where's my perfect…"

"Enough with the names Scotty," Kirk cut in, knowing he was about to give yet another name for Victoria, "We don't have the time and one more name and I'll strangle you the second I see you again."

"Well," Scotty huffed, seeming unperturbed by Kirk's threat, it was just one of thousands of unfulfilled ones he'd heard over the last year or so, "Where is she then? She can't have agreed to let you do this?"

"Victoria doesn't have a say in what I can or can't do."

Scotty snorted loudly at that, "Careful Captain, I might just tell her you said that."

"Scotty, listen…we're coming over there," Kirk insisted, actually hoping Scotty WOULDN'T tell Victoria he'd said that, she…actually had a rather large say in the things he did, even if it wasn't verbal, sometimes she'd give him an encouraging or disappointed look, other times he'd just think about what her reaction to him doing something would be and that would be enough to go for it or avoid it, "Sulu is maneuvering the Enterprise into positioning as we speak."

"This ship? How?"

"There's a cargo door in hanger 7," Khan informed him, "Access port 101A. You need to find a manual override to open that airlock."

"Are you crazy?" Scotty scoffed, "Whoever you are."

"Just listen to him, Scotty," Kirk cut in, "It's going to be alright."

"It is not going to be alright. You want me to open an airlock into space where upon I will freeze, die, and explode. And don't think for a minute, Captain, that Tory won't give you hell for letting me and my engineering genius die such a painful death. I'm the only one who gets her engineering jokes!"

Kirk just rolled his eyes and ended the transmission.

~8~

"Captain?" Spock asked as he entered the Bridge to see Victoria was already there, a worried look on her face, clearly what she'd seen in engineering hadn't been favorable. She was standing there, her arms crossed before her, frowning as she looked at the Vengeance floating before them on the viewscreen.

Victoria let out a sigh at that title and glanced at Spock, "Mr. Spock…do you think it might be possible that…someone on New Vulcan might be able to shed more light on who Khan is and the nature of his threat to the Fleet?"

Spock blinked, knowing who she was referring to but unaware she was aware that he'd met his future self, it was not something one really talked openly about for fear of their sanity being questioned by others. He knew that his future self had met them, it had been obvious to him, but he hadn't known that she or Kirk knew HE was aware of his future self's existence.

It was a clever question in that sense, vague enough where he could easily say no if he had no idea what she was talking about, or yes if he did, and likely would confirm her thoughts and suspicions that he knew of 'Spock Prime' as he'd taken to calling his future self in his mind.

"I believe it may be possible, yes," Spock nodded, before turning to Uhura, "Lieutenant, from our current position is it possible to establish contact with New Vulcan?"

"I'll do my best," Uhura offered.

"Thank you."

Victoria sighed and glanced at the captain's chair in dread, forcing herself to go sit down, it was still warm from when Kirk had sat there, "Mr. Sulu…" she looked at the Vengeance again, "Have our scans picked up anything from the Vengeance yet?"

Sulu shook his head, "Their systems are still offline, I'm aligning our ship now."

"Good," she swallowed hard, Spock eyeing her with concern as she gripped the arms of the chair so tightly her knuckles turned white. She tried to take a breath, tried to calm down but…the thought of Kirk being alone with the man who had murdered her father put her on edge, "James?" she called, activating the comm. to the trash exhaust where she knew Kirk and Khan were getting set up in their jump suits, "Are you in position?"

"Affirmative," Kirk called back, "How're are we doing over there Mr. Scott?"

"Captain, I wish had better news," Scotty's voice picked up, "They blocked our access to the ship's computer. They'll have full weapons in three minutes. Next time I won't be able to stop them destroying the Enterprise, standby."

"Liaison Pike…" Sulu began, "I mean, um, Captain…"

"Really Sulu, just call me Victoria," she cut in, feeling like she'd already had this conversation with Chekov.

"Victoria," Sulu corrected, "Our trash exhaust is aimed at access port 101A of the other ship."

"Hear that James?"

"Copy that," Kirk called, "Scotty?"

"I'm in the hangar, give me a minute," Scotty sounded like he was panting now, "I'm running, standby…whoa, whoa, whoa," he gasped, "Hold on there, captain. This door is very wee, I'm mean, you know, small. It's 4 square meters tops. It's going to be like…jumping out of moving a car, off a bridge, into your shot glass."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Victoria smiled at the memory.

"I've done it before," Kirk agreed, "Remember that Tor? I was vertical, we jumped down to a..." he cleared his throat suddenly and they could all guess that Khan had likely given him a look for it, "Right, it was just a bet you know, it um…it doesn't matter. Scotty!"

"Did you find the manual override?" Khan inquired.

"Manual override Scotty?" Kirk repeated a second later, trying to maintain his control and seem serious for once.

"Not yet," Scotty mumbled, "Not yet."

"Captain," Spock interrupted, "Before you launch, you should be aware that there is considerable debris field between our ships."

"Spock, not now," Kirk huffed.

"Scotty, find it yet?" Victoria asked, her gaze trained on the Vengeance, ticking off the seconds and minutes they likely had till the crew worked out how to reverse what Scotty had done. She was probably way off in her estimate, but it was helping her keep a reminder of the severity of the situation to know their time truly was limited.

"It's not easy," Scotty half-snapped, "Just…give me two seconds alright, you mad bastards."

"Vick," Bones called quietly as he came to crouch beside the Captain's chair, Victoria dimming the comms. for a moment, "Tell me this going to work."

"I hope it does," she murmured.

"I have neither the information or confidence to make such a remark," Spock just HAD to add.

"Shut up Spock," Victoria muttered at the same time Bones grumbled, "Boy, you're a real comfort."

"Ok Captain," Scotty got back to them, "Standby. Come on, come on, come on, yes! Ok, ok I'm set to open the door."

And a moment later Kirk was giving the command, "Spock, pull the trigger."

"Yes, captain," Spock headed over to his station, putting in the commands, "Launching activation sequence on 3...2...1..."

The viewscreen shifted as the two were launched (more like sucked) out into space from the vacuum of it all, two small dots representing them on the large monitor, small blips of debris appearing in their way as they flew off…Victoria holding her breath through it all, her eyes locked on Kirk's dot.

"Kirk is heading for a collision at 0.432!" Sulu called.

Victoria was silent, feeling her heart pounding away in her ears, making her nearly deaf to the shouts and reports going back and forth from Sulu to Spock to Kirk and back to them. She felt like she couldn't breathe as she watched the dots intently…knowing that at any moment one wrong move could send them both to their death. She felt terrible because she should have been focused on helping them, on calling out commands and offering ways to avoid the debris but she just…couldn't. She hated being captain, she really wasn't qualified for it and, despite Kirk's claims that if she just let it happen she'd be a natural, she didn't want to be. She didn't see herself as a captain and she was ashamed to say she was proving it right at that moment, letting Spock call out corrections, letting Uhura try to contact Scotty when the man failed to respond.

And then her heart stopped when she heard Kirk curse and report that his helmet had been hit, his display and map going out moments later. That was not good, that was not good at all, and Spock just had to make it worse by giving the probability of Kirk being able to navigate without his helmet working, especially with Khan having apparently crashed into some sort of debris and gone off line moments ago…

She closed her eyes as Sulu voiced the thought in all their minds, "He's not going to make it."

A/N: I'm SO sorry this was late :( The internet stopped working at my house and I'm currently at the McDonald's near it to use their wifi to get it up :( I'll be posting notes on my tumblr if anything like this happens, so if the chapter isn't up at a normal time (6:30-7am EST) there should be something there about why :(

On a similar note, yesterday just wasn't my day lol. I put the poll up (saved it this time ;)) but didn't put it as viewable on my profile -shakes head- I'm so sorry, but the poll is definitely up right now on my profile for anyone who's interested ;) I think I got all the pairing suggestions, if I missed any just let me know and I'll add them right on ;)

As for this chapter though, I was so torn between having Victoria go with Kirk or be assigned to stay on the Enterprise, but I feel like, given how often she and he break the rules, that Spock's not-breaking the rules would hit him more. He'd be just a little less sure that Spock would do what he needed to make sure EVERYONE was safe and break a rule to do so where Victoria would just break them without a thought ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Oh there'll be a few more sweet moments to come yup ;) I wanted Victoria to be there...but I feell like Kirk would want to keep Khan away from her, and...I think it would be interesting to see how she handles being captain in a situation like that ;)

Victoria will definitely NOT be taken in by Khan, but I can't say more about that ;)

I agree, Marcus is just terrible :(