WARNING: mentions of experimentation (non-graphic-ishfor now) on children…could count as child abuse. Continue reading at your own discretion.

Chapter 24

They were thrown into the brig. Beaver wailed and his sister, Fawn, attempted to comfort him. Little Wolf and Hawk looked at one another in dismay while Beaver cried on and on.

'What are we going to do?' Hawk asked and Little Wolf shrugs sadly.

'I don't know.' She said.

Fawn sniffled. 'I want to go home! None of this would have ever happened if we had stayed!'

'Want John!' Beaver wailed. 'I scared!'

Fox never said a word. He curled into a corner of the room and shivered quietly in fear as he awaited his fate at the hands of the Invaders.

Little Wolf frowned. 'Stop it!' She yelled. 'We're going to okay, but if we keep freaking out we won't be. Beaver! Stop making that noise! John will get us out of this and everything will be fine. Okay?'

'How do you know?' Hawk asked Little Wolf quietly after the other two had fallen asleep. 'How do you know if we'll be alright?'

'I don't, but I know if we keep crying about how scared we are, we'll never find a way to get out of this place.' Little Wolf sat down and leaned against the cold wall.

'Do you really think John will come?' Hawk sat beside her and their knees touched lightly.

'I hope so.' Little Wolf then smiled at Hawk. 'But until then, let's make their lives as awful as we can. We'll make them regret knowing us, much less putting us in this place!'

'Deal!' Their fists touched, sealing the quiet promise.

"Having fun yet?" Marcus stood in front of their door, a cold smirk plastered onto his face. The smiles disappeared from Hawk and Little Wolf's expressions. They said nothing to him. Marcus then turned to a few security officers. "Take them all to medbay and draw up blood samples to identify which one's Khan's kids are. Put the ones who aren't his back into the brig and keep Khan's in medbay—I want some experiments done." Marcus's gaze hardened as he looked over the children. "Don't worry. It'll fun."

The old Admiral then stepped aside, allowing his men into the room. Fawn screamed as harsh hands snatched her away from Beaver. Beaver, who had been quiet moments before, now screamed wildly, his face going red as another pair of hands yanked him up from where he had fallen onto the ground.

One man moved to grab Hawk and he bit down hard onto the offending appendage. A well-aimed fist slammed into Hawk's nose, whipping the boy's head to the side. A trickle of blood ran down his face from the blow. He was dragged out of the room by his hair. Fox whined but could not escape the arms already circling tightly around his waist. He cried out for his mother only to be jerked out of the hallway and into the cruel, white glare of the medbay.

"Little Wolf!" Hawk screamed. "Run!" But it was already too late. She too had been grabbed by Marcus's men and was the last to be dragged away.

Little Wolf's composure had been calm until they had taken out the needles. She then fought wildly against the restraints…but there was no escape. Not this time. This time there was no mother to smuggle her away, no kindly nurses to tell her that everything would be alright, and no John to save her just as she fell victim to danger. This time, there was nothing and no one to stand in the way of the experiments. Her mouth opened into a blood curdling scream as the needle broke her skin, but, unlike her dreams, this time there was no waking up.

…

"There." Khan ground out as he rose slowly to his full fight. "Fixed."

Kirk frowned skeptically but Scotty had nodded in agreement with the Augment's words.

"Aye, Captain. Everything seems to be in order. The Warp Core is back online and we are back to main power. Nice thinking, by the way, about the software problem—I never would've caught it."

Scotty extended his hand to Khan and Khan shook it carefully, though his eyes never left Kirk's…and he still hadn't forgiven the Scottish Engineer for shooting him before he had a chance to kill Marcus. Had it not been for Scotty, none of this would be happening right now. Khan retrieved his hand from the other man's firm grasp before he changed his mind and crushed the other man's hand.

"And now what, Captain?" Khan snarled the last word. "Should I make you coffee? Order you a stay in a luxury hotel?"

Kirk rolled his eyes: "Get to engineering. I want you to start donating as much blood as possible to give to any of the kids in case they need a transfusion. While you do that, I'm going to confer with my first officer, unless you planned on taking a paid vacation before saving the kids?"

Khan glowered at the blonde before stomping out of the room.

"You may want to be a wee bit more careful than that, Captain, or he'll wind up killing you before a rescue mission is even attempted!" Scotty said but Kirk chuckled.

"Relax, Scotty. I'll be fine. Are you sure everything is alright though? He didn't sabotage anything?"

"No, sir, I watched him the entire time."

"Well, go back over everything he's touched just to make sure. Send me a message when you've finished."

"Aye, sir." Scotty watched as Kirk marched out of Engineering.

…

Little Wolf and Fox and thrown into a separate brig than the others when the scientists finally finish with them. Fox curls into his sister's side and they blink wearily, their tiny bodies shaking ever so slightly from blood loss and the sickness that was injected into their systems.

Fox falls asleep quickly. Little Wolf, however, remains awake. Her lungs pull in and push out oxygen gently as she watches the man pacing the hallway outside their cell. Despite their brief reprieve, Marcus would only demand more and more from them within the coming hours.

Where was John? Why isn't he here yet?

Wasn't he coming to save them?

…

"So, what do you think, Spock? Sound like a good plan?"

"Negative, Captain, however , I have yet to hear you propose a plan that could be defined as "good"…logically speaking it is possible, though there is an extremely low possibility of success."

"Well, that's good enough for me. Get suited up and tell Khan to do the same. We're leaving as soon as humanly possible."

"But what will happen after we have liberated the children—assuming the attempt does in fact work? How do you propose we get Khan back into his cell?"

"Well, what about tranquilizers?"

"They would work for a short amount of time, but, unfortunately, would not be a viable option since our intended destination is very far—"

"You know what? It doesn't matter, okay. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"That does not seem like a 'good plan' of action, Captain."

"Spock, I'm going to strangle you. Just get suited up; we'll work on the specifics some other time, alright?"

Spock blinks in mild irritation: "Yes, Captain."

…

"You plan to do what?" Khan frowned in disapproval at the young captain and then looked at Spock. "Captain, that is completely idiotic. There is an incredibly low probability—"

"Oh, success—yeah, I know. Got over it. Just strap yourself in and shut up. The faster this is over, the faster I get your ass to Earth. So, shall we begin?"

"I am not going to grace that with a response." Khan huffed and put on his seatbelt.

"What? Why? It sounded cool!"

"Let's just get this over with, Captain. Are you driving or should I?" Khan groaned inwardly. Off all the people in the universe he could be stuck with now, and the Fates put him with this imbecile? He may as well count the children among the dead now—there was certainly no chance of any of them coming out alive!

"I am," Spock jumped in before Kirk could begin to argue with Khan. The last thing they needed at that time was for Khan to start strangling Kirk before the mission could even commence. "I trust you both are properly secured to your seats?"

Both men glared at the Vulcan; wordlessly, Spock glided their small ship into space and steered them towards Marcus's last known trajectory.

"Khan," Spock said and the Augment glanced at the Vulcan briefly before turning back to study the starts, "Do you have idea as to where the Admiral intends to go?"

"No."

"Well, looks like we're off to a great start already," Kirk said under his breath and Khan shot him a glare.

"Initiating Warp," Spock said before either of the two could speak.

…

The cell doors swished open.

"Go, Fox! Go!"

Fox rushed past the guards and raced through the colliders. Surprised shouts followed him but the boy refused to slow. He zigzagged wildly around reaching hands and disappeared around the next bend. Marcus snarled with frustration.

"I want that boy found and I want it done yesterday!" Marcus howled. His angry grey eyes caught onto a smiling Little Wolf. The girl took one look at Marcus's expression and her face went blank instantly. "Well, then, little girl. It would seem that you're going to be getting both you're as well as your brother's experiments today. Isn't that just swell?" He marched into the room and snatched her up by her long, dark brown hair and dragged her out into the hallway.

"Let me go!" Little Wolf yelled. "Let me go, right now!"

Marcus shoved her into a clear room and watched as green smoke slowly filled the room. She began to slam the palms of her hands into the glass but the glass refused to budge beneath her frantic movements. It was getting hard to breath. Why did he put her in here? He had to know that it would be hard to breathe! At least Fox wasn't in there.

"Or you'll what, exactly? Hm?" A corner of his lips curled upwards. "Looks like you're just like your good-for-nothing father. I can't wait until the vivisections begin."

…

Fox rushed around another corner before popping off an air ventilation vent and crawling inside. He pulled the vent back on and then crawled quickly away. All he needed to do was find the communications room—whatever that was. Then he needed to send a message to his dad and he'd come to save them!

…But which way was it?

He frowned. Voice sounded in the hallway nearby and he began to move again. It didn't matter where the communications room was; right now, he needed to put some room between him and the bad men. If they caught him, Fox shuddered. Well, it wouldn't be good. Not good at all.

…

"Spock, where is the ship?" Kirk asked.

"I am unsure, Captain. I have followed their previous projector, but they must have changed course. Nothing is showing up on the scanners. Khan, are you positive that you do not know where they could have—"

"Positive." Khan glared at the blackness around them. "Are there any Section 31 bases in the area? Or secret Starfleet facilities?"

Spock thought for a moment. "It is highly unlikely given the remoteness of our location. Does this area have any sense of familiarity or significance to you?"

"No."

"Has Marcus ever taken you out in this direction before to a facility of some sort whether it be a holding facility or a place to manufacture weapons or ships?"

Khan scowled at Spock, who impassively back at him: "No, Spock. This area is new to me. I've never been out here or seen it mentioned in any of the reports."

"Well, this is going fantastically," Kirk said sarcastically. "Why do these kids matter so much to you anyway? They're not Augments or members of your frozen crew? Why do you care? What's it matter to you if they die early?"

"My children." Khan said softly, looking Khan right in the eyes. "My children are with the others. Despite what I have done, they should not be punished. They were conceived long before…I did what I did."

Kirk's mind went blank before suddenly exploding from shock: "Wait…you have kids?"

Khan's eyebrows furrowed. "Yes?"

"Like…real kids?"

"…Yes?"

"Living, breathing children? Children that actually share your DNA?"

"Captain," Khan allowed his impatience to seep into his voice, "it is not a difficult concept. Sometimes when a men is with a women, children are conceived—surely they taught you this at some point during your educational experience?"

"Well, yeah, but…I mean…" Kirk sputtered.

Kids? Augments could reproduce? When did this happen? People always said they were sterile! Crap! They'll put Khan behind bars and then have to wonder if his spawn will become just like him! Kids! What in the world? Why did no one warn him about this? He would have had them all in the brig!

"Gentlemen," Spock said quickly. "Perhaps, it would be best if we were to locate said children, first?"

"But, Spock!"

"Captain, it is my understanding that their wellbeing's', if not their lives, are in jeopardy. This conversation would be better suited to when we have retrieved the children and Khan is placed back into the confines of the modified brig. For now, however, we must focus our efforts on locating our subjects and bringing them back to our ship before too much damage has been wrought." Spock turned to Khan. "Tell me everything that you know about the Section 31 bases: their procedures, regulations, locations.