Title: Reaper of Bones
Author: miss_m_cricket on LJ
Fandom: Star Trek Reboot! / Doom Crossover.
Rating: R for language and goriness
Pairing: will be Reaper!McCoy/James T. Kirk
Disclaimer: Own neither Doom, nor Star Trek.

Summary: Starfleet has ordered the Enterprise to Mars to reactivate the Olduvai facility and Bones is once again forced to face his demons...

A/N: Right well this was supposed to be a short fic? But ah...Reaper decided to hold me hostage so this will probably become a series. Hope you enjoy.
A/N 2: Italics are scenes from "Doom" the movie.

Reaper of Bones

"So what was he like before?"

"Who John?"

"Yeah."

"Empathetic, sensitive..."

"Kinda hard for me to imagine Reaper as sensitive."

"Yeah well I knew Reaper before all the 'drop-down-and-give-me-50-woo-haa stuff."

~*~

There weren't many windows on the Enterprise, and it was rare that anyone had any time to just stand and gaze out at the panorama of stars that they displayed. To see Leonard McCoy standing there, arms folded broodingly against his chest, was almost unbelievable. But today he was there, dark eyes gazing out at the universe surrounding them and in particular the red planet floating nearby.

To those who didn't know the Doctor well, he looked like he always did, grumpy and solemn with a wry twist to his mouth. But to someone a little more familiar to the man's body language, alarm bells would have been ringing. His jaw was tight, clenched almost to the point of shattering, and the wry smile was almost painful. His arms were tight to his chest and the fingers were digging into his arms. He would have bruises there, that is if he bruised anymore.

Mars.

Why the fuck had Starfleet ordered them to this hellish planet? Why had the Enterprise been the ship chosen to transport the Scientists here? No one had set foot in Olduvai in over 200 years, since the Arc had been destroyed by the then John Grimm. Now here he was again, as Leonard H. McCoy, Chief Medical Officer of the Starship Enterprise, and Starfleet had ordered the facility re-opened. A perfect testing ground.

"Bones?" It was Jim, his best friend, his only friend in 200 years of changing from Reaper to McCoy. He didn't know how he had managed to attract the bruised and battered boy sitting next to him on the Shuttle and keep him around, but he had. As for him? The kid had reminded him of Duke, the playful never serious Marine that his sister had grieved for until the day she died. Everyone had loved Duke, and that had included him. Kirk wasn't Duke, but he still had that charisma and charm, and he was a leader, Duke had never led anything.

"Jim." He responded, eyes never leaving the red planet out of the window. His ears caught the almost inaudible sound of material shifting as James T. Kirk came up beside him. He could tell his friend was worried but he wisely said nothing, and instead put his hand on the Doctors arm.

"We aren't going to be here for long. Just have to make sure the Facility is stabilised and then leave them to do their thing." Bones's muscles rippled faintly under his fingertips as the man shuddered briefly. "Fuck, Bones what has gotten to you about this?" Jim was really concerned now; Bones looked almost frightened, or as frightened as Jim had ever seen him, even with the Narada incident.

"Nothing." Was the curt reply, and Bones shifted his arm away from Jim's touch. "I'm going to go grab my supplies. I'll meet you at the shuttle." He could feel Jim's head turn to look up at him in surprise. He very rarely went on landing missions, and he never volunteered.

But he had to go this time. He couldn't let Jim go in there on his own. Even with a landing party, Olduvai wasn't safe. And he was the only one who could keep Jim safe from that Hell he had been so lucky to escape from.

~*~

"You chose this Reaper." Sarge reminded him as the squad rapidly followed the stiff back of Samantha Grimm towards the entrance to the main laboratories of Olduvai. "Is this going to spoil my day?"

"No sir." Reaper said, trying not to sound too bitter about being shown up in front of everyone by the science officer.

"Tell me you didn't let a fine looking piece of ass like that get away from you Reaper?" Duke said, leaning forward to peer around Sarge at Samantha's retreating backside.

"She's my sister." Reaper growled, trying not to scowl at the other man and walking faster to catch up with his Commanding Officer.

"No shit?" Duke said surprised, dropping back to walk with Destroyer.

"Don't do this again man." The big black man groaned.

"Do what?"

~*~

"Doctor McCoy?" Spock's voice broke him out of his unseeing gazing out of the Shuttle windows. They had landed, he could see now, the planet stretched out red and dead for as far as his eyes could see. He could hear the engineers up near the front of the shuttle, organising connecting the craft to the Pressure Door entering the Olduvai facilities North Corridor. The First Officer looked at him, with an expression as close to concern that Spock could achieve, "We are almost ready to disembark and the Captain would appreciate your presence when entering the facility.

"Fine." He growled in response, standing and making his way past the Vulcan, who followed him, an eyebrow slightly uplifted. They joined Jim who was clapping an engineer on the back as they finished Air-locking the shuttle to the door.

"Bones! There you are, were you having a rest? I know you don't like shuttles but this was the only way down to the planet." Jim sounded excited, curiosity in his voice. They had all studied the Olduvai UAC facility in the history classes at Starfleet, and to McCoy's discomfort the names John and Samantha Grimm had been mentioned. Mechanical failures, toxic gas leaks inspiring mutational diseases had been blamed on the whole incident, a cover up as always.

Jim had found that particular case study, out of all the ones he could have, fascinating, and hadn't stopped pestering Leonard for months about the intricacies of the medical aspects of that kind of phenomena. McCoy hadn't strangled him, but it had been a close call.

Now they were here.

The Pressure door was opened leading into a smooth stainless steel entryway. No lights, but that was to be expected, no one had been here in over 200 years. One of the engineers moved to the nearby control panel and paused, "I am unfamiliar with this level of technology." He admitted after a moment, "This might take me...a while to figure out."

Bones frowned; he didn't want to wait here for 'a while'. He wanted the scientists dropped off, and then them gone. He didn't want Jim here or Spock for that matter. "Let me have a look." He growled, walking forward and ignoring the surprised expression on Jim's face. "I took a class back at the Academy on old technology." The engineer stepped back, too surprised to really argue.

Bones stepped forward and looked at the familiar set of controls and keypads. He faked making a few mistakes and then deftly bypassed the UAC codes to restart the generators and bring back the lighting for this section of the Facility. He knew Spock was watching him closely when he stepped back into place behind his Captain, but he didn't return the look.

Jim nodded approvingly in Bones's direction and then issued some rapid orders. "We need to scan the facility, make sure it is secure. Remember there were issues here the last time it was in use. Also the previous owners of this research centre used the planet to test nuclear and biological weaponry. The left over radiation renders technology such as our Transporter and the Bioscan obsolete, hence why we have to scour on foot, and why we came down via shuttle. Once we are sure it is safe we shall leave the Scientists here and return to the Enterprise. Any questions? Good." He hefted his phaser. "We shouldn't need our phasers, but keep them close to hand anyway. Corporal MacGuiver, take three men and cover the South wing, Sergeant Rand the East, Corporal Dijo the West and I'll take the North. Keep in contact via comm."

And they all split up, McCoy moving to definitely stand at the Captains left hand side. The right hand side was held by Spock but it was natural for him to take the left. Reaper had always been Sarge's Second in Command and he had always flanked left. It seemed only natural that McCoy flanked his Captain the same way.

He Jim and Spock headed out, moving quickly through the corridors into the darker, more insecure areas of Olduvai. The lighting here was gone, and McCoy was glad when Jim ordered them to turn on their hi-beam lights. They entered the Forensic Archaeology lab, one of the few areas of the entire Facility to be relatively undamaged.

The place is exactly how he remembers it, and he can feel the Leonard McCoy he has worked so hard to craft slipping away. Here he cannot be anyone but John Grimm, Reaper. He looked around and he could almost see her, almost hear her voice.

"You found human remains." Reaper studied the skeleton of the mother shielding her baby, in the glass case, hand still cradled almost automatically around his gun. He and Sam were in one of the Lab's retrieving the UAC research data.

"Humanoid. Lucy and her child were our first major find. We are bringing more out every day." Reaper froze and then turned towards his sister, his expression dark.

"You re-opened the Dig." It wasn't a question, more an angry statement. Sam at least looked a trifle remorseful as she glanced over at her twin.

"I know I should have told you." Reaper turned away his expression twisted with bitterness, "I figured it wasn't the kind of thing I could jot down on a yearly birthday card." Reaper remained silent, his mouth tight. "It's been stabilised!"

"Bullshit!" Reaper swore.

"You wanna talk about safe? Like you took a desk job? I'm a forensic archaeologist John; I go where the work is."

"Is that the only reason you're up here?" John sneered.

"You wanna know why I'm up here? I'll show you, c'mere." She tapped in a few controls and inserted one of the memory disks into one of the information ports. "This is Lucy's Chromosome profile, notice anything?" She looked up at him expectantly.

"My molecular genetics is a little rusty."

"What was the first thing Dad taught us to look for?" Reaper looked once more at the screen and frowned slightly.

"She has 24 pairs of chromosomes." He murmured.

"Humans have only 23."

"But what does the extra pair do?"

"Makes her superhuman. The other pair makes her super strong, super fit, super intelligent. Her cells divide 50 times faster, meaning she heals almost instantly. The fossil record indicates these people had conquered disease. We found no genetic disorders, no viruses, and no cancers."

"So what, they were just naturally superior?"

"No not naturally. See the earliest remains only had 23. We suspect this extra chromosome may be synthetic."

"Bio-engineered?"

"That's a long word for a marine." Sam sneered quietly, "Does it ever bother you that you could have spent your life looking through a microscope instead of a sniper-scope?" Reaper gave her a very brother-like look of annoyed disdain and turned back to scrutinise Lucy.

"If they were so smart, how come they are so dead?"

"We don't know. Maybe they just went with time."

There was silence for a moment as Reaper looked at the mothers hand raised as if to ward off something.

"You don't shield a baby from time."

~*~

Once again he is here standing by the case holding Lucy and her child, dead over thousands of years, but now he knows why they are so dead, and what Lucy was shielding her baby from. A sound from behind him made him twitch and he whirled around, phaser coming up in a swift arc to point right in the centre of Spock's chest. "Shit, don't sneak up on me like that you son-of-a-bitch." He growled, voice rough as he lowered his weapon.

"I apologise Doctor." Spock replied evenly, his dark eyes thoughtful. "I must however express concern for your well-being. You have been acting rather erratically since hearing of this proposed mission to Olduvai. Your reaction is rather illogical considering the factors at hand, therefore either you are behaving irrationally in the context of this mission, or you have information that the Captain and I lack."

"Spock..."

"And since, Doctor." The first officer continued relentlessly, "I know you are not an irrational man by nature, it leads me to conclude that you have been keeping some information from us. And furthermore, since you are so anxious and jumpy, it leads me to infer that whatever this information may be, this mission has the potential to be more dangerous than first anticipated."

Jim moved up beside Spock, his blue eyes concerned but with a steely look in them. Bones knew that look, it's his Captain look, and it means that Bones is in a whole heap of trouble. "Well?" he asked.

Leonard glanced from one to the other and saw no mercy in their eyes. He had to tell them.

"I..." he began but was saved by screams coming through their comms and a frantic voice yelling 'Captain, Captain!'.

"Fuck!" Swore Jim and clicked open his communicator, "What the fuck's happening?"

"Something's attacking us!" the voice shrieked down the line, "Something big!"

~*~

"Reaper, what have you got." Sarge's voice blaring in his headpiece as he ran.

"We're chasing something!" Reaper yelled back.

"What do you mean something?" Sarge snapped.

"Something big! Not human!"

"God Damn it give me a confirmation on what you see! Reaper!"

~*~

Bones stood there frozen as the man gave Jim a garbled screaming account of one of those mutated monsters, before he too lost his life in a horrific soundscape of roaring and crunching bones. Jim looked pale, and even the usually stoic Spock looked a little shaken. Both of them looked at Bones after the noises were abruptly cut off.

"I think you have some explaining to do." Jim's voice was grim and he moved to sit in the old dusty chair by the computer consol at which Sam had sat at so long ago to show him the C24 chromosome profile. Spock leaned against the desk beside the captain and it seemed to Bones that it was them against him. He had broken something between them, trust, and he now had to try and get it back.

Bones floundered for a moment, unsure of how to begin and then he reached into the small med-kit pouch at his waist for his sharp operating scalpel. He handed it to Spock, who blinked once, his Vulcan way of expressing surprise.

He held up his hand.

"Cut me." He ordered, gruffly. "Don't worry about how hard or how deep. Just do it." Spock glanced at Jim, unsure. Jim too looked utterly bewildered.

"Bones, what has this..."

"Everything." He interrupted. "This has to do with everything. Do it Spock." The Vulcan shook his head, a small furrow appearing on his usually expressionless face. "Oh for fuck's sake, fine." He snatched the scalpel back and without hesitation stabbed it violently into his hand. He gritted his teeth at the pain, ignoring the cry from Jim and the hissed intake of breath from Spock. Yanking it out again he groaned aloud at the pain, holding his hand up.

Right before their eyes, his skin healed over. Untouched, unblemished, unmarked.

Silence.

"Bullshit..." Jim whispered, staring at Bones's hand, "Bones, what the hell?"

"Over 200 years ago, there was a containment breach here on Olduvai." Bones began, seeing that both Jim and Spock were focused completely on him now, and not on his supposed betrayal. "UAC, the company that owned the facility called in the RRTS, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad. They discovered that the Genetics Research team had developed a twenty fourth pair of chromosomes, to be added to humans original 23."

"But..."

"Shut up Jim, let me finish. The C24 chromosome made some humans monsters, mutated beyond all recognition, but some it made superhuman." Bones took a deep breath and let the years slip away, let himself embrace Reaper, the life that he had worked so long to push aside. He looked into Jim's face knowing from the look on his best friends face that something indefinable had changed about him.

"My name was John Grimm, known as Reaper to my RRTS squad mates. My twin, Samantha, was a forensic archaeologist doing the research in this facility. When I became fatally wounded, fighting the monsters, she injected me with the C24. We were the only two to survive. Afterwards we discovered that the C24 also slowed my aging. It took 200 years for me to age 6 or so years biologically."

"John Grimm." Jim breathed, remembering the case study and the accounts of the marine who had escaped. "But that's not what we learnt..."

"UAC covered it all up, got me kicked out of the Corp, tried to bribe them to have me sent on a suicide mission. Sam, they left alone, believing she knew nothing. I fled, spending 200 years transforming into Doctor McCoy."

"Fascinating as this is." Spock said, interrupting an intrigued Captain Kirk who looked to be about to embark on a whole new set of questions, "We can leave certain details until later. Right now the question remains, how many monsters are up here?"

"I cannot be certain." Bones said grimly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "We left one scientist unaccounted for. Also my former CO may have survived the grenade that destroyed the Arc, he would not die easily. Coupled with that, I do not know how many of that squad of our men who died would have been infected."

"We will assume six then." Spock murmured. "Captain, I would advise you to recall all of the other teams, we will be safer as a group I would logically assume."

"Quite right Spock." Jim nodded and spoke into his comm., "All teams make your way to the Forensic lab."

"Yes sir." Came one response. They waited but no other reply came. Minutes passed and the door slid open to reveal Sergeant Rand and his three men.

"Corporal MacGuiver, come in. Corporal Dijo, come in." Nothing happened and Kirk turned to look at his two officers.

Spock and Bones looked back at him grimly.