A/N Forgive the shortness and sloppiness of this chapter. Recaps are so difficult to procure without having it sound too repetitive. Anywhoos...enough of me, onto the chapter!
The lost of six dozen lives.
They had all gone unnoticed in the galaxy. To everyone else, their existence was just a whisper of wind dying down to a dry halt.
But not for Khan.
Amidst the abandoned Ketha Province of Kronos, the stoic Augment took refuge underneath the shattered stained-glass windows glowing of heavenly gold. Contrasting with the darkness of its industrial, polluted planet, this place was a forgotten sanctuary,
A lost beauty,
A place for grievance.
For the majority of his stay in the foreign planet, all he would do was just stand on the broken altar, lids drooping heavily to a close as he basked in the sparse amount of reflected light.
For an apostle, one may mistake this action as a silent prayer to God.
It was a fitting description in actuality. The scene very much resembled the aftermath of a funeral.
A mourning for the death of his crew.
For the death of John.
The one loss of existence that had gone without acknowledgement, but Khan's grief was enough to make up for the entire world's.
At first it shook him to the very core, but now there was nothing left in the once frazzled Augment.
It had died along with John.
He was his heart, and now Khan had none. All he had left was that bitter memory. Everything else was fading fast.
His eyes clenched tighter as he recalled that awful sound of a failing cryopod beeping frantically around him, then coming to a sudden, mind-numbing silence. He remembered that split second when Marcus ordered for the ship containing his entire crew to be blown up, and he remembered his failure to save everyone on board and only managing to escape by himself.
Now he was alone. A situation deemed unacceptable to the people who knew his potential.
Khan should not be alone.
With no restraints or anchor tying him down to his morality, the powerful Augment now had the freedom he craved to seek vengeance and it was all against the Admiral.
When not in Kronos, Khan began to spend his time hidden amongst the civilization of Earth, wandering unnoticed by Starfleet and free to plot his destruction. No one knew of him.
On Earth, he was John Harrison.
A name to keep the memory of him alive.
Khan spent all his time near Starfleet Headquarters, researching, observing, deducing. He needed to find new tactics for bringing down Marcus and if possible, Starfleet itself. His one key weapon:
Manipulation.
Khan used whatever he had to get what he wanted. His silken voice to persuade the soft hearted, his daunting eyes to threaten the weak, and best of all, his newfound ability to share his regenerative skills.
A drop of blood onto a dead experiment was all it took for Khan to realize he had gained the upper hand once more and he used this power to target the most vulnerable soul.
But he didn't think of it as a threat. He was simply giving them the opportunity to save the ones they hold most dear for the cost of their own lives.
A second chance Khan never had.
Unknowing to all, the emotionless Augment was the cause of any destruction done to Starfleet. Any obstacle Marcus had underwent all rooted from Khan's hatred, and he did absolutely everything that had to be done to reach the Admiral.
And he didn't feel a thing as he caused so much ruin.
He didn't fear death for death was what he yearned for nor did he harbor any hope, for his family was already cruelly taken away from him the moment he awoke in the presence of Alexander Marcus.
Khan no longer had anything to keep him tied to this world other than the blood he sought from Marcus's dead body.
And he always came very close to getting what he wanted. Close, but to no avail.
His last attempt came straight out of luck. All it took was a Starfleet member whose daughter was on the brink of death and his determination to help her live. When Khan appeared before the distraught father, he found the pleading man groveling on his knees when he offered his assistance.
"Will you accept any price to pay for a life?" Khan purred kindly but dangerously onto the man's ear as he helped him back up to his feet.
"Anything - anything at all!"
Piercing eyes flickered with interest and deceit. His kind hold on the man's arm turned into a forceful grip and began to pull him harshly towards his gaze. The man saw fire in those glass eyes and as he looked very closely, he could even spot his own reflection amongst the clear blue and saw the fear that radiated on his face.
Khan loved the expression people had when they stared at him. He felt like death himself, offering the contract written in blood.
Oh how he wanted for Marcus to be under his gaze. Khan wanted him to see the man's own fears reflected back onto him through his eyes.
With another dark whisper, Khan began to speak once more but with feigned kindness now gone from his voice.
Terrified eyes widened at the words that flowed through his ear in a command. Khan shifted his attention back at the hospital doors and smiled at the occupants behind them. A girl confined in her bed and barely breathing. A mother crying by her bedside.
It was a reminder for the poor Starfleet officer of what he could get back at the cost of his own life.
The next week, the Kelvin Memorial Archive was blown to dust.
The very building in which secretly held Section 31, known to Khan as the basement he had occupied in ever since he woke up from his cryogenic sleep.
On that same week, Khan was able to see once more the face of the murderer as he fired amongst a crowd of officers.
His failure was not a lost, however. The look on the Admiral's eyes when they met was enough to assure Khan of his victory.
The game was back on and this time, Khan no longer had a heart for Marcus to toy with.
The day of the tragic incident which caused the lives of many esteemed officers was the day Marcus knew his war with the Augment had once again begun.
Since the very beginning, he had always known Khan was alive and plotting his demise but he could never find where. He also knew of the many occurrences that had happened to him after Khan's escape but they had never faced each other ever since, but after locking eyes with the Augment once more among the destruction of fire and blood, Marcus finally understood the depths of the man's hatred.
It was only for a split second, but during that time, he saw the change through that cold stare.
Blank and lifeless, but full of electricity and bloodlust.
But the fear Marcus harbored didn't last for too long. After being informed of John Harrison's location in Kronos by James Kirk, he couldn't believe his luck. It was as if Khan wanted to present him with the very war he wanted.
A reason to invade Kronos.
And because of the death of Christopher Pike, he had obtained many more pawns to do his dirty work for him.
No, Alexander Marcus didn't feel threatened by the return of Khan. For him, it was more of a blessing.
After confirming Kirk's reinstatement as Captain and the approval of their voyage to Kronos, Marcus walked along the now empty hallways of headquarters, pieces of loose papers began to ruffle slightly underneath the crook of his arm. They were wrinkled and old like the skin of his hands but their contents held information that had helped the Admiral learn more about his dear adversary.
Placing the papers in front of him as he walked deeper to his destination, Marcus began to read once more of the stories and documents scrawled hastily on centuries old material.
God-like humans that once roamed the Academy's very halls,
A doomed ship carrying coffins in which they were laid to rest in,
A failed execution marked successful.
The ghost story passed on through the very mouths of Starfleet Academy students. No one knew exactly of its origins for its age, but now.
Marcus, obsessed with the unbelievable tale of Augments as a child now held the very documents that had started it all.
He read the scribbled text over and over again until he had finally reached the steps leading to a cold and dreary storage facility.
"I cannot emphasize more on their existence than what information this paper holds but do remember this: Augments are real." Marcus narrated from the paper in front of him.
"They are real and they were once human too. They were wrongly accused of being a threat and they never once held the desire to kill. These people are human experiments but they are not monsters. They will return one day, I can guarantee this, but it will be long after I am gone."
He entered the room with caution.
"If there is ever a chance you are reading this Sherlock, know that you couldn't get rid of me that easily and that you will always and forever have my undying respect."
With a wave of his hand, the lights of the hidden storage facility nestled somewhere in the crooks of Starfleet Headquarters revealed the very torpedoes Marcus had threatened to destroy. Licking his thin, aged lips, the Admiral recited his most favored line. A line full of so much mystery and lost information even Marcus couldn't get hold of:
"Sincerely Yours, M. H."
A/N ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)