McCoy stared in horror as Leighton's face, and then Jim's, became blank and numb, their eyes closed. Then Jim began to stir again, eventually pushing himself up from the ground slowly. McCoy felt like his heart was being ripped out. Jim had given in; had given up his own mind, the one thing he kept guarded the most, in order to keep them and the city safe. He glanced around him, and saw the others wearing similar expressions.

Jim – or more accurately, Leighton, now in Jim's body – now stood up straight, seemingly unaware of the injuries he had acquired. He stretched his neck, and looked up at the group in front of him.

"No," McCoy whispered brokenly. This was terrible. This was worse than if Jim had even died. They still had Jim technically, but he wasn't there – not anymore.

A feeling he recognized as rage began bubbling inside his stomach as the guards paraded them back into the truck, and in defiance, he stopped, causing one guard to bump into him.

"Hey," the guard said. "What are you doing? Keep moving!"

Then, without even thinking of what the consequences would be, because who even gave a shit about that anymore, he turned and kicked the guard flat on his back.

"Agh!" the guard cried out as he hit the ground. "What the fuck? Grab him!" He shouted to his partners as they began to approach the doctor, menace in their eyes.

McCoy locked eyes with Spock, and then Sulu – and then chaos reigned.

He pushed forwards, knocking aside one soldier before reaching the one he had decked and kicking his straight in the face. Blood spurted from the guard's nose, and he felt bone crunch under his boot. The guard cried out again, a hand reaching to cradle his own face. McCoy never stopped moving, kicking his face again before sweeping the legs out from under a different soldier, sending them toppling as well. He heard shots fired, and at one point a sear of hot pain in his hand, but he kept going.

Sulu, Spock, and the others were having their own show as well, immediately moving into action after McCoy, not questioning him – or in Spock's case, declaring the unlikeliness of their success. They only attacked, bringing down guards and struggling to keep them down. Hanfred and Guiders work with their bonds earlier seemed to have done the trick, and after a minute they were able to pull themselves free. As soon as they did so, they worked on freeing the others, Sulu first, and then Uhura and McCoy. Spock managed to get himself out mostly on his own.

With his hands free, McCoy grabbed a gun for himself off of one of the guards he had brought down. Pushing his own morals into the depths of his mind, he shot freely, making sure to hit even the ones he had already brought down. He tossed another gun to Sulu, who did likewise, shooting the best he could even with the hole in his arm.

McCoy felt his heart beating wildly in his ears, and he barely heard as a soldier jumped him from behind. They fell hard, McCoy's already throbbing head striking the ground, his breath leaving him in a rush. He felt the cool bite of a gun's muzzle at his forehead, and a shot rang out.

But he wasn't dead.

Instead, the body on top of him collapsed, blood flowing from its side. McCoy pushed him off in disgust, and looked up to see Uhura with a gun pointed towards him.

"Thanks," he shouted, and she nodded tersely before turning to another man in front of her.

McCoy took that moment to look around, and to his surprise, they seemed to be winning. Spock was systematically bringing down soldiers, either with headshots or nerve pinches. Sulu was faring well even with the shot to his arm, and Hanfred and Guiders were working together to bring down whoever they could. Uhura was doing just as well, the pinpoint accuracy of her shots taking down whoever dared oppose her.

And then, for the second time in as many minutes, he felt the muzzle of a gun at his temple. An arm reached around his neck in a headlock, and the doctor cursed as he saw the color of the sleeve.

How could they forget about Leighton?

"Stop!" Jim's voice commanded, ringing over the scene, and McCoy straightened slightly at the tone. It was one the crew could never ignore – the voice of their captain. He saw the others turn slowly to face them, guns of course pointed in their direction – but he knew they would never fire. They couldn't, and McCoy understood that. It was Jim for Christ's sake.

"Nobody moves! This is not how this ends! You may have the upper hand now, but there are plenty of soldiers just over the hill, waiting for my call. You will never make it out of here alive." McCoy could feel the breath on his neck, and tried to imagine the scene differently. If this wasn't Jim, what would he being doing right now? What would be happening?

Jim would be saving his sorry ass, that's what would be happening, he thought wryly.

"Jim, please," he heard Uhura say, and felt Leighton's grip on him tighten.

"There is no more Jim you stupid bitch!" Leighton shouted. "He's gone – and never coming back!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Guiders roared, the hand that held the gun twitching as if preparing to shoot.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," Leighton warned, shoving McCoy forwards and pushing the gun deeper into his temple.

"What's stopping us?" said Sulu. "You yourself said Jim's never coming back – what do we have to lose?"

"Before your bullet even hit its mark your good doctor would be dead. Now get back into the fucking truck, or I swear to god –"

"You swear you'll what?" challenged Uhura. "What's the point in keeping us?"

"I'll need you as bargaining chips for supplies, starting with those vaccines you never bothered to deliver to this planet. And though Kabul may have been the one asking for it, I'd still like those dilithium crystals as well. Now move!"

"No," Spock replied levelly. "We will no longer be pawns in your game. We will –"

Jim fell to the ground, taking McCoy down with him, and he heard the shot of a gun next to his ear, sending waves through his fragile skull.

He pushed himself off quickly and looked down at Jim's body. His eyes were closed, as if in sleep, and McCoy pushed his fingers to his jugular, relieved when he felt a pulse, however weak it was.

But what the hell had just happened?

"Doctor?" he heard Spock's voice, and looked up to see the first officer kneeling in the dirt on Jim's other side. "What is happening? Has Jim's control returned?"

McCoy shook his head, still trying to clear the sound of the gunshot from his mind and ears. "I don't know for sure Spock, but what I do know is that we need to get back to the ship – ASAP. If Jim is in there somewhere, he won't be for long in this state, his body's about to crash on him. In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't already." He looked down into Jim's bloodied face, searching for movement. "Goddamnit you better be in there you sonovabitch," he muttered gruffly.

"I've got Leighton's communicator, and the bastard's tied up good!" Sulu yelled from a distance.

"Be sure to collect both remotes as well, Lieutenant," Spock ordered.

"Aye, sir!" Sulu replied, searching for the remotes, and being careful with the one he knew controlled the bombs in the city.

"Sulu, pass me that communicator, I'll see what I can do with it," Uhura called. Sulu nodded and rushed it over to her after securing the remotes in his pockets.

Meanwhile McCoy was watching over a quickly worsening Jim. He pressed down on the wound in his friend's stomach; cursing Leighton's crew for the number they'd done on him. It hadn't even been fucking necessary – the controller in his neck would have been enough. But apparently Leighton had some pretty fucked up fantasies. All this time, he had been waiting for the right moment to strike – had been anticipating and planning his attack on Jim – had even designed and built the controller that now lay lodged in his spine. And for all of that time Jim had trusted him, had seen his as one of the few people he could actually trust. Jim didn't even trust McCoy as much as he had trusted Leighton. It pained McCoy to admit it, but it was true. After living through something like Tarsus together, there was no way that Jim wouldn't trust him. Tom had been one of his kids, someone that he had loved and protected. And the entire time he had been working for Kodos – he even had his own plans for Kirk!

The whole thing made McCoy sick.

"Come on, come on, where's that transport?" McCoy snapped.

"I'm working on it!" Uhura bit back, her teeth clenched. "I think I've almost – aha!" she yelled triumphantly as a burst of static filled the air and she spoke into the comm – "Enterprise, do you copy. This is the landing team. Requesting immediate transport of all personnel back to the ship. We have a code gold – medical will be needed on arrival!"

There was another burst of static.

"Enterprise, do you copy?" Uhura repeated.

Then sweet music reached their ears, though it was garbled. "Landing team, we copy… have medical… arrival. Prepare… transport."

And with that, McCoy, for the first time, felt extremely happy as his molecules were separated and shot into space.


Well... Hello! Long time no see, right? Anyway even though you've probably forgotten all about this story I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones to come. I promise there will be more soon - I'm starting the next chapter as soon as I post this, okay? Please tell me what you think, and again, if you spot any blaring plot holes, I'd be more than happy to know about them. Thanks for everyone who's kept with this story from the beginning, and anyone else who finds this story today - I love you too! Please review - it only takes a second, and they make my day and feed my muse.

See you soon! xxx