Here's a long one for ya. Tell me what you think of where I went with this - this wasn't what I was going to do originally, but it seemed like a better choice then what I had in mind. Anyway, R/R and enjoy!


Two Hours Earlier

Leonard came to with a vague sense that something was terribly wrong. His head throbbed, telling him that he must have some kind of concussion, and he groaned.

"Leonard! Thank God, you're awake," he heard. That sounded like Uhura. What was going on?

Suddenly it all came back to him. He bolted upright, immediately regretting that decision two seconds later. He groaned again and put a hand up to his head. Uhura was leaning over him, looking worried.

"What – where's Jim?" He asked, trying to think over the throbbing in his skull. Slowly the pain diminished and he turned to Uhura. She glanced over to the other side of the room, where Jim was lying on his back, his eyes closed. "Jim!" McCoy raced over to his friend and put two fingers on his neck, ignoring the banging in his head. He felt a pulse and fell back on his heels, relieved. "What happened?" he asked Uhura.

She swallowed. "Well when they came to get Jim again they knocked you out. Your head hit the wall there. I'm not quite sure how long they were gone, but he's been back for a while now, out cold. You've both at least been out for a few hours."

McCoy's eyebrows creased in concern as he looked down at his friend. With each rattling break Jim took, more blood bubbled up on his lips. It was probable that a rib had punctured his lung, since the knife gash was too far down to have caused that. The doctor's hands fluttered over Jim's body, for the first time in a long time not knowing what to do to help. He didn't have his medkit with him, so he was limited to what he could do with his hands. He gently pressed down on Kirk's stomach, cringing when he felt the rigidity that signaled internal bleeding. He would do anything for a medkit right now.

Suddenly steeling himself, McCoy untied the already blood soaked "bandage" from Jim's stomach and turned him onto his side, watching as the buildup of blood poured out of his side.

"What are you doing? He's bleeding more!" Uhura asked, kneeling down next to McCoy.

"His abdomen's filling up with blood. I have to get it out somehow, and it might as well be when he's unconscious." McCoy looked down at his hands, which were covered in dirt and grime and blood and who knew what else. "Shit."

"What?"

The doctor shook his head. "This isn't sterile at all. Who knows what kind of infection he could get from this."

Uhura frowned. "If you need to do it, do it. Whatever's on you is probably already in the wound."

"Yeah that doesn't exactly make me feel better." McCoy sighed. "I guess I don't have a choice." Let's just hope he doesn't wake up to this, he begged silently. Taking a deep breath, he stuck two fingers into the wound and started to scoop out the excess blood that hadn't already come out.

When he finished he slid Jim onto his back again and ripped another few strips from his uniform for a new bandage. Jim was still out cold, though his pulse had increased, signaling he was still feeling the pain.

McCoy wiped his hands off on his pants and then put his face in his palms. "Goddamnit, why does this always happen to us?"

Uhura put a hand on his shoulder gently. "He's going to be fine, Leonard. We're going to get out of this, okay?"

Suddenly McCoy noticed the rattling breaths from below them had stopped. His eyes widening, he leaned down over his friend, listening carefully for breath sounds. There were none. He put his fingers on Jim's neck and cursed. "Shit, he's got no pulse! Uhura, help me!"

Uhura scrambled to Jim's other side as McCoy started compressions on Jim's chest.

"Don't you dare do this, Jim," he hissed angrily, accentuating each word on each compression. He paused as Uhura knelt down to breathe for him. "Come on, you can't leave us like this!" McCoy didn't even know what he was without Jim. Surely he was alive purely to keep Jim breathing. If he couldn't even do that, what was he? His gut twisted savagely and his heart raced, unable to face the undesirable outcome here. Sure, he had lost patients before, and even his own father. But Jim was different. "Come on," He yelled, cringing as he felt Jim's ribs shift beneath his hands.

Then Jim's eyes flew open and he took a gasping breath. McCoy could've cried in relief. "Jim, thank God." His friend's eyes darted around the room, never landing on anything for more than a second. McCoy leaned over Jim's chest and grabbed his chin, forcing his to look in his eyes. "Jim, you're okay. You're with us." Jim's eyes settled, but his face remained curiously blank. "Jim?" The normally bright blue eyes seemed unfocused and unseeing.

McCoy started as Jim pushed him back and began to stand. "Jim, hold up! Lay back down, you're going to hurt yourself more, you stupid idiot! You just stopped breathing, goddamnit!"

Jim ignored him and stood, only turning back to him when he was fully upright, his face still blank. His mouth opened and closed strangely, as if he was trying to speak but couldn't. McCoy's heart raced – Jim hadn't been out for that long, surely there couldn't be brain damage? He put an arm on his friend's shoulder. "Jim, can you hear me? Are you okay?"

Then he was on the ground, Jim's knee in his chest. McCoy heard a gasp from Uhura. "Leonard, his neck!" McCoy looked around and his heart dropped into his stomach as he saw a little blinking red light.

"They activated it," he said brokenly.

"Yes, we did," Jim – or Jim's body – said, releasing McCoy. His voice was flat and devoid of emotion, so unlike the real Jim.

"Kabul, stop this you crazy bastard!" McCoy growled. It felt really weird to be talking to Jim and yet knowing it wasn't Jim.

"Let him go!" Uhura yelled, clenching her fists.

Jim laughed mechanically. "This isn't Kabul. I'm afraid there's been a bit of a turnover. Or at least, there will be."

"What?" McCoy frowned. "Who the fuck are you, then?"

A creepy smile formed on Jim's face. "Let's just say I've been working towards this moment for a long time. Little Jimmy's always been my greatest prize. And he sure remembers me, don't you Jimmy?" Jim's arm came up and patted his own head.

McCoy blanched and backed up a few paces. This wasn't good. In fact, it was worse than he could have imagined before. There were only a few people who would call Jim "Jimmy." He was one of them, but all the others were bloodthirsty bastards from Jim's past. "Kodos?" he asked shakily.

"No," the voice responded, and McCoy breathed a sigh of relief. But then Jim's controller continued. "Close though. Right forest, wrong tree."

Shit. McCoy cursed silently. So whoever this was, they had been on Tarsus with Jim.

Uhura turned to him, her face a mask of confusion. "Kodos?" her eyes widened. "Are you saying –?"

"Not now, Uhura," McCoy cut her off sharply.

"Ah, he didn't tell you?" Jim's body turned to face Uhura. Whoever was controlling seemed to be getting better at it by the second. Expression was making its way into Jim's voice. If the real Jim was in there somewhere, he was too weak to do anything. "Little Jimmy here was on Tarsus IV with me during the massacre. It's a touchy subject for him, I can see."

"Get out of his memories, you fuck!" McCoy cursed.

Jim's face turned his glare on him. "Jim's got quite a soft spot you, doctor. But whatever you think, he doesn't trust you, not completely. And he never will."

"Stop it!" McCoy growled, his heart twisting.

"Ah, but it's true. Now, I've got some things to accomplish, so if you'll excuse me." Jim turned to the door and knocked on it four times, the last one louder than the rest. The prison door opened and they were met with the glare of the late afternoon sun. "Kabul!" Jim called out.

The bastard was still sitting in his chair in the middle of the room. His eyes widened and he pointed to Jim. "What is he doing out of his cell!? Restrain him!" he ordered, but none of the soldiers moved. Kabul's face twisted and he looked around frantically. "Shoot him!" he ordered desperately.

Jim's arm reached out towards a soldier, who gave him his gun. "Oh, this is gonna be fun." A shot rang out and hit Kabul squarely between the eyes.

At the sound of the shot a group of soldiers raced in, their guns out and their gazes narrowing in on their fallen leader. But Jim, or whoever was controlling him, was faster. He shot wave after wave of soldiers as they came into the room, switching guns with other soldiers when he ran out of bullets. When the barrage was over, Jim didn't have another scratch on him.

"Damn, he's good!" Jim's mouth said, smiling a little. He turned the soldiers who seeed to be following his command. "Tie them –" he gestured towards Uhura and McCoy " – Up over there. They'll want to see this show, I'm sure. And tie these bodies up in the square. Let's make a statement."

Soldiers hurried around, dragging bodies out of the building and out into the palace square.

McCoy grunted as a soldier grabbed him from behind and brought him over to a set of chairs along with Uhura. Rough ropes bound them tightly to the furniture, and as the doctor tried to move he found the chair itself was attached to the floor.

Jim made his way over to the two of them. "I can see why you like him so much. Very handy in a fight, this one."

McCoy frowned. "Are you saying –?"

"Yup. That was all him." Suddenly Jim groaned and brought a hand up to his head.

McCoy's heart raced. Could Jim be fighting against whoever was controlling him? Was that even possible?

The moment was over as suddenly as it began, and the controller didn't even mention it. "Now, I'm sure you're dying to know who I am."

McCoy and Uhura didn't respond.

The controller continued anyway. "I met little Jimmy when he first arrived on Tarsus. I brought him to Kodos' house was with him for many of his lessons. And, of course, I was there after the famine began, and I was there for Jimmy's…" he paused, smiling a little. "treatment. Or should I say torture?"

The blood in McCoy's face rushed to his feet and he struggled against his bonds. "You sick bastard! Stop this!"

The voice continued as if McCoy hadn't said anything. "I was Kodos' helper, you could say. I pretended to be Jim's – or as he was known, "JT"'s – friend. And Jimmy was always Kodos' pet, but that didn't mean I didn't see the potential. After Starfleet came I ran, and I've watched him grow ever since. This rebellion seemed like the perfect opportunity. I had been developing this little puppy," he patted the back of his neck, where the controlling device was. "I assume you know what it does at this point. Unfortunately you can only control one person at a time, which is why I had to kill all those soldiers. Jim is in my control, which is something Kodos himself never accomplished. It's also the perfect human shield, if you will." He smiled. "You'd never hurt your dear captain, would you?"

McCoy growled.

"He never figured out I'd been helping Kodos." He chuckled. "But he sure knows now."

"Who are you?" Uhura asked angrily.

"My name," he replied, "Is Thomas Leighton."

McCoy's eyes widened. "No," he breathed. Leighton was a crew member of the Enterprise! Anger stirred in McCoy's gut. "How could you do this to him? He's helped you out all this time – he thought you were his friend!"

"Like I said – he never found out. And here we are."

"But where are you, really?" Uhura asked.

Leighton frowned. "Now why would I tell you that?"

"Sir!" a soldier called from across the room. Leighton turned to face him. "There's a group of Starfleet soldiers coming this way! We just saw them in the square – they're coming around to the side entrance!"

"Well I'll meet them there."

"Do you need backup?"

"No, I'll be fine on my own. JT's got quite the aim, even with a hole in his gut."

He turned and left the building, bringing a gun with him and leaving McCoy and Uhura in stunned silence behind him.