exastris_scientia | ｔｈｅｒｅ'ｓａｂａｄｍｏｏｎｏｎｔｈｅｒｉｓｅ

[blood is bubbling in his throat, he's choking on it, drowning in it--he's managing shallow breaths but it's through the gaping wound, nearly to his spine, not through his mouth. he can't feel anything. he can't feel the hands on him.

he hears, though. that's the last sense to go.

opening his eyes is a struggle. he almost wishes he hadn't. jim shouldn't look so afraid, so desperate. there's no reason for him to anymore. but it's hard to look for long for other reasons.

his vision tunnels, goes dark. his eyes slip closed.

his labored, drowning breaths stop, and do not start again.]

[ bones doesn't dare try to move jim. he tries, futilely, to work around him. he's keeping pressure on the wound and that's good---but for a wound like that. there's nothing he can do.

jim tries to stay in julian's range of focus, but he's struggling. blood is bubbling past his fingers, and the sounds---jim shakes his head, fighting back tears of equal parts shock, pain, and rage. ]

Jim---[ bones tries to get his attention, but he can't look away from the life ebbing away in his hands. it isn't the first time he's seen death, but it's the first time that death meant a damn thing to him. it's dangerous for jim to be here. a moment of weakness that could be exploited and bones is already on high alert. he wishes that damned augment jim's grown so fond of was down here right now to talk some sense into him, but he isn't. god damn this is a mess.

jim watches julian's eyes close, and hears the labored breathing go silent. it's like something changes when that final breath goes, and the body under his isn't the same anymore. he jerks his hands back suddenly, shock giving way to pain as he looks between the red on his hands and his dead friend. he shakes his head, little abortive movements as his shoulders bunch up and tense, like a child trying to hide themselves by becoming too small to be noticed. ]

Jim, I need to get you out of here.

[ his moods have always been mercurial to say the very least, but ever since the transfusion to bring him back via khan---it's been so much worse. it's their fault. thomas knew, but he thought he could handle it. that bitch trying to sidle up to him and knife him in between the ribs is kodos' spawn. she killed thomas. she had julian killed. like father like daughter. he'll drown them both in each other's blood.

he doesn't realize that he's bunched up the fabric of julian's robes in shaking fists, bloodying them more as he shakes from the rage suddenly burning through him brighter than a supernova. that entire deck hears his scream of rage. ]

[anyone who mistakes that howl as a sign of weakness isn't long for this world. it pierces the air, haunting in its intensity.

it catches joaquin's attention immediately, amd he recognizes the voice. he doesn't know what it is, but he does know that khan is on the bridge now, and he's in a better position to respond to whatever is happening.

he tears through the gloom of narada's darkened corridors towards the infirmary, expecting blood. he's not disappointed, as the recently declared emperor stumbles out of the room, covered all down his front and reeking of blood.]

Sir...

[he and kirk are not necessarily on a first name basis. cautious respect is safest.]

[ jim has torn himself away from julian's body and bones' grasping hands to keep him from running blindly from the room. though blind is hardly the best term. he has only one goal in mind, a singular desire. there is no where to go on this ship. there are no shuttles they can take.

they will die choking on their own hearts, and then he will throw their corpses into the heart of a sun to burn away that they ever existed.

the human crew scurries away from their blood-soaked emperor quickly enough, but it's joaquin's voice that stops him briefly. he knows him, of course he knows him, he's khan's second and most trusted. jim trusts him as well, under normal circumstances, but there's a madness in his eyes. ]

I'll drown them in each other's blood. There aren't words for the kind of things they are.

[ he stops, looking down at the dead troupe member, and hunkers down to pull julian's poisoned knife out of his cooling corpse. in his burning rage, there are still tears streaking his face. ]

Get rid of it.

[ and he turns to go down the corridor to find the bitch and her father. ]

[oh, hells. joaquin has seen too much blood to be fazed much by it, but he recognizes that expression--it's pure, unholy rage, bright and hot and crushing as a star. the emperor is in fine form right now. woe betide anyone who stands in his way.

joaquin knows julian, too, recognizes the knife as the viper's tooth. there's blood on the hilt as well as the blade.

that's why he doesn't try to stop jim, merely steps aside.

once he's gone down the hall, bloody footprints in his wake, joaquin looks into the infirmary. he might not have understood julian all that much--they're generations apart even as they're close enough by blood to be brothers. but seeing him cut down, laying sprawled on the deck with a gaping throat almost made joaquin turn on his heel and follow kirk himself.

instead, he pulls out his communicator and calls the bridge.]

Khan. There's been an incident in the infirmary. Security is compromised.

[ the bridge shift is usually quiet, but khan has seen enough in his years to know that quiet does not mean peace, and so he and his crew are always on guard. he did not agree with the decision to bring this troupe on board, but it seemed to appease jim. he does humor him at times, rare though they might be, and closely guarded.

it would hardly do for the empire they are remaking to find out that it's emperor has an augment as a companion and not a slave. it riles jim, but it is necessary. for now.

rumor reaches the bridge only moments after the communicator call, and the only sign of upset from khan is the tightening of his hand around the communicator. he orders one of the crew on the bridge to seal off important areas of the ship. ]

I'm on my way. [ it will be easier for him to find out what is going on if he heads down there himself. just as it will be harder to track kirk by hearsay. ] Brief me quickly and follow Kirk.

Bashir was attacked by one of the theater troupe. Both are dead.

[it's not particularly hard to see that. there's more blood out of him than in him. evidently the man had known bashir was an augment, because he had taken no chances--joaquin could see bone through the gash in his neck, it was very nearly all the way through.]

Kirk is on his way to confront them.

[kati has arrived, by now. she must have been nearby too. joaquin jerks his head in the direction of the infirmary doors--she can stay, get the situation under control. they don't need words to communicate.

she nods, and strides into the room with her head held high, barking out orders to the startled human crew. except for mccoy, she trusts his experience enough to leave him alone.]

Kati is here.

[he goes to follow the bloody trail left behind--he can practically smell the fury in the air, so thick that he doesn't need to track by sight. though he knows where the emperor is going anyway.]

[ the mess of the medical bay is a sight, certainly. the whole corridor reeks of blood, and some of the more useless members of the crew (and the empire) have gotten sick from the cloying scent that lingers heavily. khan dismisses them with an order and a hiss of displeasure.

he does not yet understand the relationship between kirk and bashir, but he knows enough to know that they trust each other completely. that is an honor kirk reserves for very few in this galaxy.

kati has taken control of the situation with mccoy. displeasure mars his features as he looks at the body now laid out on a medical bed. ]

Fix the wound to the best of your ability, Doctor.

[ with the ease of practice he moves past them, and kati to get what he needs to draw blood. he'll need quite a bit, considering the damage, but hardly as much as kirk needed to bring him back. julian is still an augment, whereas kirk never was. kati certainly knows what it is that he's doing, and though julian is not a part of their crew which left earth, he is still one of them, and he is dear to the young emperor.

khan does not wish to find out what horrors will be wrought in the wake of losing his closest friend and ally. ]

Then move him to the Emperor's quarters.

[ it's easier to control the ways in and out. until this mess is contained, that is where julian will remain.

jim has a head start on joaquin. his fury propels him further, and it isn't hard to know where the two targets of his ire will be. they want a play? he'll give them the best and last performance of their careers.

the crew and troupe that have already gathered scurry from the recreational room as the screaming starts. begs and please for the young emperor to stop. which one of you was it, you dog? which one? lenore cries in anger and pain and rage as he beats the old man hiding under the guise of karidian until he can't do anything but spit blood through broken teeth. i killed them like i would have killed you! you're a danger to him. i'll claw your eyes from your skull! what will you identify then?

he makes shorter work of her than he might have liked after her confession. the way he slowly slits her throat enough to speckle his face with the spurt of arterial spray. he is deaf to kodos' pleas as his daughter drops from his hands into a heap, gurgling for each breath. he stays true to the word he gave to joaquin, and pushes his face into the growing puddle of his own daughter's blood until he stops struggling altogether.

by the time he gets to him, the room is quiet as a tomb, kodos and his spawn are still, and jim is merely sitting on the ruined stage, legs crossed under him and julian's blade clutched in his hand, sticky and glistening. ]

[the answer, as joaquin is finding, is many of them. he's very rarely encountered such brutality--and he's an augment, many of them have seen it firsthand, perpetrated it. he is no stranger to it.]

Ben zona...

[he murmurs to himself, staring at the scene in front of him. at kirk, sitting on the stage, absolutely coated in blood, head to toe. the girl, the old man with his face in her slit throat, lying at his feet.

good god, khan had best know what he's dealing with here. joaquin doesn't even know where to begin.

he steps into the room, slowly.]

[ it's been quiet there for the longest time. the crew have long since fled the room, followed swiftly by what's left of the band of actors. jim knows he's been sitting there long enough for his shirt to feel cool and sticky now. itchy, as the blood starts to dry.

but then a voice breaks the silence, and jim looks up from where he's sitting, blinking slowly at him. ]

[joaquin was in prison for murder, before khan had released him. he knew what it felt like to have someone's blood on your hands--quite literally on your hands. even so, kirk is absolutely spattered in it, like he'd stood in a fountain of the stuff.

no one else is in the room. no one else alive, anyway. the corpses were barely to be considered--to joaquin, they are quite literally nobodies.]

Khan sent me to find you.

[might as well start there.]

[ it still doesn't seem to process as quickly as it should. his rage has left him, and all that's left---all that's left is him. quite literally. the four thousand who were spared by virtue of kodos' twisted eugenics hardly matter. the handful who witnessed his casual barbarism ---

jim is the last one. it's a little ironic, isn't it? an augment found two half-dead children who survived kodos. now an augment is here again to find only one of the boys grew up to survive him in the end.

his gaze is here and it isn't at the same time. part of him here and the other part is a decade behind him. ]

Yeah, I---I'd like to leave now, Joaquin.

[he inclines his head, then offers his hand. kirk's are covered in blood, and he has no way of knowing what of it is bashir's and what of it belongs to the two damned souls in this room. he'll call one of the others to help clean it up. he's already planning what fates the rest of the unfortunate traveling troupe will find themselves meeting--they were damned the second one of theirs pulled a blade on one of the narada's crew. he's sure khan will agree.

they can control the crew. what they can't control is the rumors spread by those outside of it. this can't get out--and that is the least of the reasons they need to be rid of.]

We'll take care of this, Jim.

[the name feels odd on his lips. he's not used to calling the man by his given name.]

Come on.

[ jim shifts julian's blade over to his other hand, refusing to let it go. they can't keep his body. before, it was enough to know that he was out there in the galaxy somewhere, just like thomas. now this is all he'll have of him. he reaches out for joaquin's hand, and pulls himself up to his feet.

he doesn't cast any more glances at the bodies on the floor. they are nothing to him. they took two of the only people he's ever cared for away from him. ]

I want to set a course to the nearest star system. [ he leans into the augment, feeling more tired than he can remember feeling in a very long time. adrenaline wearing off, perhaps? he isn't fully an augment, after all. ]

Put them in it. I want them burned out of existence. Like he should have been ten years ago.

[ khan has already supervised getting julian moved to their quarters, though kirk doesn't yet know. the doctor did his very best work in patching him up, and khan has given him his blood. now they must wait.

so he sits in a chair near the bed and waits for joaquin to bring kirk back, trying to hide his anxiety over the situation. he would know, by now, if something of this sort had befallen the emperor, but he has no idea what state he might be in at the brutal murder of one of his closest friends. ]

I'll give the bridge their orders myself.

[he knows khan is waiting. he suspects he knows what khan has done. bashir is one of them, after all, and valued. he brought kirk back with his blood, he could probably do the same for the younger augment.

joaquin carefully adjusts them so it only looks like kirk is walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him--he might be tired, but they're already treading a thin line and they can't show weakness. he takes the most expedient route up to his quarters, as well--he doesn't move them to the bedroom yet, where he knows khan is waiting, he guides kirk to the bathroom, so he can clean the blood off of himself. if it were just karidian's, he doesn't think it would be as much of an issue. but it's bashir--julian's--as well. he starts the shower, hot as it can go, and leaves the emperor with a towel and a change of clothing. he doesn't try to take the knife.

that accomplished, he goes to khan.]

Well, this is a disaster.

Good.

[ jim doesn't say anything else after that. he let's joaquin guide the way, knowing that he can trust him because of who he is to khan. he needs to tell thomas' wife that it's been taken care of and make sure that she's looked after and not taken advantage of.

there's a soft mumble of thanks as joaquin leaves and kirk discards his bloodied clothing on the floor. he gently sets the knife on the sink, and climbs in under the spray to let it wash the blood off of him, making the water pink around his feet.

khan looks up from steepled fingers as joaquin comes away from the bathroom. ]

To put it succinctly. I count 3 dead by my reckoning, not including Julian. He's responding well. Thank you for bypassing the bedroom, I'd greatly appreciate breaking this to him as easily as possible.

Did he say what, exactly, happened?

No. He's in shock.

[not the physical kind, at least, but certainly mental. khan isn't doing fantastically well either, if the steepled fingers and white knuckles are any indication. he's going to have a headache after this.]

I'll review the security footage for the infirmary and the guest quarters. Something will be there.

[he looks over at the still-sleeping bashir, he's looking faintly grey still but the color is returning to his face. he looks odd without the makeup and heavy robes--small, almost, wire thin.]

It will be more than three in the end. I'm not sure we can suffer to let the rest of them live. We have no way of knowing how deep their plotting goes. Best to tear it out by the root.

[brutal? perhaps. joaquin isn't saying he's not.]

Considering the last transmission to come through these quarters, it's unsurprising.

[ he may well already have one starting, due to the situation and the giving of a large amount of his own blood in order to help bashir. he will survive it. ]

A Thomas Leighton was murdered on Planet Q, where we picked up the troupe of actors. Thomas Leighton and James Kirk only have one thing in common.

[ he has been busy, when he could sit no longer and his body demanded movement as a way to expend the energy. and then it would catch up, and back to sitting it was. he reaches out for a nearby PADD, and offers it to joaquin. ]

A small colony on the outer rim by the name of Tarsus IV. The story is there.

[ the look he offers him is one of steel yourself, brother. it is not light reading in the slightest. he can only imagine that julian must have found them there, it does mention that the man was known to keep "exotic" slaves. an augment child, perhaps? he waits a few minutes before speaking again. ]

None of them shall leave this ship alive for long. Have them escorted out the nearest airlock.

[joaquin takes the padd, and takes warning from the look on khan's face. he isn't going to like this in the slightest.

a few moments later, that assumption rang true. and humanity had dared to call them monsters. he has to put the padd down before he cracks it in his hand.]

I'll see it done. Sooner rather than later.

[he stands up, looking at khan solemnly.]

Take care of yourself, too. Food. Sleep. I know you're going to resist it.

I would join you in escorting our passengers off of the Empire's flagship, but that's hardly a prudent thing for me to do at present.

[ khan has to look after both kirk and julian. ]

Be certain to give them all our regards.

[ he can hear the shower shut off, and he wants to be there to escort jim out so he can assess his mental faculties himself, and help him accordingly. ]

Then I should hardly have to respond to that. [ a gentle tease in his own way. ] Go. You can see to all of us again after it is done.

Only the best hospitality for our honored guests.

[the sarcasm is thick in his voice. he looks towards the bathroom--he, of course, hears the shower turn off too. time to make himself scarce.]

I intend to. Don't make me bring Kati in here to fuss over you.

[being your second-in-command comes with making sure you eat something. kirk too. julian, if he's awake. he's not sure how long he'll be out.

he doesn't smirk as he leaves, the situation is too serious for that. he goes to the bridge first, as he said he would. then, to the infirmary to get kati--he gathers a few more as he goes. people he knows he can trust. it's not that he expects the humans to be able to put up much of a fight, he just wishes it done as expediently as possible.

I would expect nothing less.

[ khan hums in assent. he knows full well that joaquin will make good on his threat, and he hardly had the presence of mind to politely bear so much at once currently. he shifts as he hears kirk finishing getting dressed, and stands, watching joaquin leave. he moves the PADD with the information on tarsus iv out of sight, he'll delete the information later.

he may yet press for answers, he does still want them, but not now. ]

Kirk. [ there's a sudden silence in the shuffling. then a voice. ] Yeah, I'm coming.

[ and true to form, he does open the door to come out, khan taking in the ragged appearance despite the shower, the lingering smell of old, sticky blood from the clothes still laying in a heap near the edge of the tiled floor, fresh clothes and scrubbed pink skin, and a knife in hand. one of julian's, he imagines. ]

Come. [ a more gentle beckoning than a usual commanding tone. there are times for such things, and these are not the games they typically play. he doesn't crowd him, but a hand does cup his elbow to draw him into the bedroom. he waits for him to notice julian, realize there's no blood, and the slow, but steady rise and fall of his chest. jim no doubt recalls his own experience on vulcan and his subsequent death. one that khan had pulled him from as well. he nods to the knife.]

He'll want that back when he wakes. But now, you need rest as well.

[ there's a sleeper sofa on one side of the room. khan will rest there once he's certain kirk is settled, or at least he'll attempt to. he says nothing as he watches jim leave the knife on the nightstand on his side, and crawl into bed next to julian, carefully pressing against his side and wrapping an arm around his middle.

joaquin is the only one, outside of mccoy, who can override the door. so he allows himself a measure of rest as well. ]

Edited (i can type this early i swear) 2015-12-18 13:33 (UTC)

[joaquin is busy enough to leave them be through most of the day. questions, accusations, wrangling the human crew is more complicated than the augments, and he doesn't have fantastic patience at the best of times. his siblings at least knew how to listen, and how to obey. he feels like he's quashed at least one mutiny and any number of rumors.

they'd diverted course to the nearest star, and ejected the bodies of the karidians. their troupe was floating somewhere in deep space, light years away. he's tired now.

he goes to the emperor's quarters after. despite no one but he and mccoy having access, two of their brothers were standing guard outside. he nods at them before inputting the door override.

all three are sleeping. joaquin smiles slightly. khan is probably not going to be asleep for long, though, with his intrusion. none of them are heavy sleepers.]

[ khan doesn't stay asleep for very long after, but when he opens his eyes to realize that it is just joaquin, he doesn't find it necessary to sit up. at least not when he'll only be scolded for getting up. he can humor his brother well enough at times. ]

Thank you.

[ for taking care of it. he had no doubt he would. he casts a glance towards the bed, watching the two men still sleeping there. he'll have to check on them soon. depending on how julian is responding to khan's own blood, kirk may yet sleep longer than all of them. khan remembers the haunted look on his face. the shock, and the slight tremble to his frame as he led him over to where julian was. after reading the information on tarsus---

even after the source of his upset and rage has been dispatched, khan doubts kirk's sleep will be easy. he has only the loss of adrenaline and shock to thank for his exhaustion here. ]

[joaquin inclines his head, conveying 'of course' in the slant of his shoulders and his expression. he's satisfied that khan isn't getting up, and goes to the replicator on the wall to get two cups of strong tea, handing one to his brother and keeping one for himself.]

May this be the last of it.

[for this attempt on the emperor's life, anyway. it's a violent world they live in--if there were no more attempted coups or assassinations, it would be a legitimate miracle and might make joaquin believe in a god.]

How long do you think Bashir will take to recover?

[despite kirk's relationship with khan, he knows that kirk will be best reassured by the younger augment awakening.]

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