It was a huge relief to be back on the bridge, standing, ready to go. Raring to go, even.

He knew it probably wouldn't last long, and he had to do what needed to be done as quickly as possible. But he couldn't help the little bit of dramatic flair to start. After all, he wasn't James Tiberius Kirk if he didn't flash some dramatics.

He watched with a smug sort of pride as Briggs tried to comprehend the Captain standing in front of him, full of color and life. The wide eyes that immediately shrank to a narrow glare as he attempted to hide his surprise, the way his body shifted from relaxed to tense and prepared. After all, Spock had been something of a joke. A fully alive Captain come to reclaim his throne was serious business.

"Kirk. Last I heard, you were dying."

"Disappointed?"

"A little."

"Well, I'm hurt!" He grinned, the crooked smile that had lured in more than one female. It occasionally lured in men as well, but more often than not is had an aggravating effect, which could be equally useful.

"If only that were true."

"Well, aren't we rude." Kirk sauntered forward, putting himself just a few feet away from Briggs. "And I'll thank you to step away from my chair. Escorting yourself to the cell I've picked out for you would be preferable."

"You are aware, of course, that your title has been stripped, in light of your impending death, and I've been made Captain of this ship."

"You are aware, of course, that I'm clearly not dead." The statement was light, airy, but the next words out of his mouth were deadly serious, and looking for a fight. "The Enterprise is my ship."

"It was lent to you by Starfleet. Don't presume to take ownership of it."

The way he spoke about the Enterprise, as if she was just a hunk of metal to be given or taken, made Kirk's blood boil. And so the first punch was thrown, landing solidly on the forearm that Briggs raised to keep it from hitting his face. And then another, which landed in the Tyrant's kidney. The larger man stumbled backwards, tripping over his own feet and landing solidly on his backside on the hard floor. Kirk took two more steps forward, so he stood in front of the Command Chair. His chair.

No one moved forward to help, which was what Kirk had expected; they knew this had to be Kirk's battle, he had to be the one. Either that, or they were just stunned that he was there to fight at all. Either way, it was exactly what he'd wanted.

Briggs stood, brushing whatever dirt or grime he might have collected from his meeting with the floor, and with a quiet, "There's your two hits," he took a step forward and slammed his fist into Kirk's stomach, sending a whoosh of air from his lungs. Kirk didn't waste a second retaliating, another punch aimed at the face, blocking one aimed at his side, landing one across Brigg's cheekbone before receiving one to the throat. He stumbled backwards as he tried to breathe, barely dodging another hit before coming up strong, an uppercut that landed solidly on Brigg's chin, and a whack to the Solar Plexus. Briggs stumbled backwards again, and Kirk quirked a half smile.

"What was that about two hits?"

"You needed a handicap."

"You think?"

Kirk dodged the aim for his nose. And his knee gave out and he landed hard on the floor. He cursed mentally as he forced his body to rise again. It wouldn't do for the temporary cure to wear off now.

He threw a punch up again, missing by just a hair, and Briggs came at him with another punch that Kirk barely dodged. And the second sign that he needed to bring it to a close was the sharp pain as he took a deeper breath. Damn it, his body just needed to last a little longer. He just needed to put this man down so they could get him off the bridge, and then he could give out. After, of course, assuring the crew he was fine and just needed some rest.

Bones had better be closer to a permanent solution than they thought, because Starfleet would be coming after them as soon as they heard about the Tyrant's deposition.

He shouldn't have let his focus wander, because that let Briggs land a punch in his side, which felt like an explosion of pain. He reacted instinctively, his fist flying out to protect himself and landing square between the faux captain's eyes. And he went down like a stone, just as Kirk's legs gave out and he did the same.

There was a moment of silence as Kirk let himself adjust, and then the door opened. And Uhura's gasp as she saw not only Spock, presumably leaning heavily against the wall if not sitting, and then Kirk, laying on the floor beside the Tyrant. That seemed to break the stunned silence, because suddenly Sulu was sitting next to Kirk.

"What do I need to do?" He asked quietly, relief seeping from his voice.

"Help me up." He muttered. And Sulu wrapped an arm around his shoulders and hauled him to his feet, where he wobbled. He needed to go lay down, and quickly, or he risked showing just how weak he was to the crew. And they needed a strong leader now, someone to take them where they needed to be.

"The Enterprise won't be run by a tyrant, now or ever." He said quietly, and somehow every ear on the bridge heard it clearly. "That being said, we've effectively just mutinied against Starfleet, and that won't go over well. If you have no desire to be on Starfleet's bad side, you are free to make use of the shuttles and leave the ship, and you can tell them all we abandoned you for not following my orders. There will be no grudges held if you have to protect your lives outside of this ship."

Silence followed those words, a heavy, thoughtful silence. It was a difficult decision, but one they needed to make. And one they didn't need him around for.

"That being said, Sulu will take control of the Bridge. Get Briggs to the brig," He couldn't help but smile a little at that sentence. "And get our team out of their cells. Then we've got to get out of here."

"Sir, the Enterprise won't move-" Kirk turned to one of the newer members of his crew and grinned.

"She won't move because Chekov had the foresight to steal one of her pieces. We'll have no problem once that's reinstalled.

"I'll be in the medbay, if anyone needs anything. Sulu, you're in charge."

He freed himself of Sulu, nodding at the man as he walked towards where Spock was leaning against Uhura. He did his best not to limp, not to hunch, to walk with pride and strength from the room, but he wasn't sure if he'd quite managed to get out before his body crumpled in on itself, and he fell heavily against the wall.

"Kirk!" Uhura. She was half carrying an exhausted Spock, she couldn't help him.

Get yourself to the medbay. Then you can collapse. Just get back.

And with those words to himself, he waved Uhura off, stood again, one hand against the wall, and slowly made his way back to Bones, who was probably worried to death that both of them had died.

The door opened for him now, the guards gone. Clearly word traveled faster than a wounded Kirk did. He took two steps into the medbay and his strength left him, leaving him to crumple to the floor in a heap of pained limbs.

"Kirk, dammit, you pushed it too hard." Bones tried to hide the concern in his voice with scorn, but he was only half successful as he scooped the Captain up and, with much struggling, deposited the Captain in his bed.

"But she's ours again." The pride in his voice, even laced with pain, made Bones warm inside. He would never forget the quiet that had settled about Kirk when they'd been dying in the alien cave. Any emotion was a relief.

"Good. I'd be disappointed otherwise."

It was Willard who unlocked the cells for the prisoners, and Amin who was given the honor of locking up the Tyrant and any of his crew who were unwilling to defect to Kirk's renegade crew. He'd been accepted among the Enterprise crew, and a few others who had been helping them deal with the Tyrant's reign. Most had gone into cells. And with Sulu at the helm, everything was starting to go back to normal. Or as normal as they could be, with the Captain and First Officer both sleeping in the Medbay and their ship soon to be blacklisted. But it felt much more like home all of a sudden, and everyone found they could sleep better.

According to the ship gossip, Kirk was on the mend, and had just needed some time to sleep off the fight. He'd be sitting in the command chair soon, leading them on to new adventures. Bones, however, wasn't as sure.

The temporary fix had simply been a sample of Carpenter's blood, still thrumming with the changes the planet's atmosphere had made in her. In the short term, he'd just separated the components that magnified her natural abilities and mixed them with a liquid agent to carry it through his bloodstream. And it had lasted for just under a half an hour, at which point Kirk's body had reverted back to it's previous state. It did seem like his cells had repaired themselves, but it was a minuscule amount, and in order to maintain that level of reparation Bones would have to give him injections every half hour, if not more, or find a way to super boost the new serum. He had the ability to do neither at the moment, because he didn't have enough sample to take him that far. Carpenter had offered as much as they needed, but she had a lot of healing to do, and Bones wouldn't risk her healing process if he could come up with anything else. Even if he couldn't, he wouldn't want to take any more from her. It wasn't his decision who lived and who died, and he could very easily kill her to save Kirk.

He wouldn't be the one responsible for that. He couldn't be.

On the other hand, that might mean he was responsible for Kirk's death. But he wouldn't allow himself to think like that.

So Kirk was sleeping in the med bay once more, although he seemed to be resting a lot easier than he had been, which was at least something, and Spock was sleeping in the bed next to him. It almost felt like they hadn't accomplished anything, that the Tyrant was still sitting in the command chair and they were still trapped here, no way out...

But then Uhura entered the Medbay, and all those fears that had been prickling in his psyche disappeared. Of course they'd done something. Of course.

"How're they doing?" She asked, her voice soft. She looked at Kirk, but mostly her eyes rested on Spock, her sometimes lover. It seemed they were on again, but Bones had a terrible time keeping track. He figured they'd eventually get together and stay together, but in the mean time, he didn't assume anything.

"Spock just needs to keep his ass in bed, then he'll heal and be fine."

"And...?"

A heavy sigh. "Kirk needs a miracle. But he's not knocking at death's door anymore."

"How long does he have?"

"Couldn't say. I didn't have any trial period with his temporary cure, so it could be he'll stay like this forever, weak but alive, or he could start to deteriorate further. All we can do is wait. Or send him back down to absorb the atmosphere on his own. Carpenter doesn't seem to have lost any of the strength or speed that came with it, but it didn't affect the rest of us in the same way."

"Could it be that you were locked up, so you didn't get the same effects?"

"But then Henley should have been affected too, and he's just as normal as he ever was. We were all breathing the same air, so..." Bones trailed off, frowning. Uhura waited patiently, seeing the connection being made in Bones' mind and knowing he was about to figure out how to save the Captain.

"When we were in their cells, they let us keep our oxygen, and since those things could last for weeks we didn't need anything else, but... Carpenter, when she came back, she had one of theirs. But there's no oxygen on that planet, so they must have substituted something that works in the same way, something that grants the effects... And that could be why they're so large, if... but it's not in the atmosphere, or else we'd be able to breathe down there, so..." He trailed off, lost in his own train of thought.

Uhura waited as patiently as she could, but finally watching him go back and forth, frowning to himself, became a waste of her time. "Carpenter's mask and tank are being stored in the artifact room. It should still have some of the whatever they were breathing in it. We could give it to Kirk-"

Bones was up and moving before Uhura was finished speaking, and she hurriedly rose with him, making their way to what could be Kirk's miracle, if the doctor's speculation was correct. And it usually was.

AN/ Sorry this has taken so long! I wasn't sure what to do with this chapter. But thank you so much for reading! Adventure awaits!