A/N: So, at last, we come to the end of Seventh Circle! Dear god, I hope this chapter is up to snuff.

I'd like to thank everyone who was kind enough to review the last chapter! I've been so absurdly busy with work this summer that I just couldn't get around to responding to the last set of reviews, and I'm very sorry! I'd also like to thank all my readers, particularly you lot who have been around since the very beginning of this story two years(!) ago. Thank you all for reading, and reviewing! I sure wouldn't have been able to finish this story with out you. It's been quite a journey! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! :)

And now, the long awaited conclusion of Seventh Circle...

Seventh Circle

Chapter 16

Chekov is dead.

The last time they opened the door was to take away the kid's body. He closes his eyes against the burn of tears. Spock is gone and Bones is gone and Jim is alone in the dark. He reaches up with his bound hands and swipes angrily at his eyes. He must not show any weakness now.

His hands smear wetly against his face; the cords binding his hands have bit into his skin until blood runs down his wrists. Kirk strains at the cords out of sheer frustration. The door opens and suddenly he is not alone. He scrambles away from the door but his back is against the sweating wall and there is nowhere to go.

The light burns his eyes after so long in the dark but he can still make out her hateful form silhouetted against the windows when they dump him on the polished floor. Lilith smiles down at him, her golden eyes untouched by the expression.

"Go to hell!" he snarls at her.

Someone kicks Kirk viciously in the ribs for this blatant disrespect. He topples over but manages not to make a noise. Lilith laughs. "Bring in the other one."

"Get your hands off me!" McCoy's curses fill the air as he too is dumped on the floor at Lilith's feet. He is torn and bloody and desperate. She grabs him roughly by the hair and hauls him to his knees. He struggles uselessly against her iron grip. Jim's heart is in his throat. There is a knife in her free hand. Bones cannot yet see it.

"I warned you not to be so attached, James Kirk," she says silkily, pressing the glassy blade to the doctor's throat.

McCoy's eyes are fixed on him, wide with fear. "Jim!"

"No, don't-" Kirk begins to protest but she has already drawn the knife across his throat.

"BONES!" he screams in horror, but it is too late. His friend struggles in a growing pool of his own blood and there is nothing he can do-

"Jesus!" Jim Kirk wakes with a start, adrenaline screaming through his veins and his heart hammering painfully against his ribs. He extracts a trembling hand from where it has become tangled in his sheets and passes it across his eyes. His skin is clammy with cold sweat. "Lights, twenty percent," he gasps into the darkness.

The computer obediently brightens the overhead lights to reveal the familiar chaos of his quarters on the Enterprise. Kirk disentangles his limbs from the twisted sheets and hauls himself into a sitting position, panting slightly. His still-tender abdominal muscles protest the motion. His skin prickles as the room's cool air begins to dry the sweat soaking his body. He leans back against the bulkhead and forces himself to take a slow, deep breath.

Chekov is alive, emaciated by his ordeal and bored out of his teenage mind with Sickbay, but very much alive. Bones is alive too, probably snoring away in his quarters unless he was having the dreams again too. Spock is alive and unharmed. Kirk doesn't know if he dreams. They are all safe on the Enterprise and well within Federation space. They will not return to Janusia.

The captain sighs and glances at the luminescent display of his bedside chrono. 0407. He has to be on duty in a few hours, and he was hoping for some solid rack time before facing up to the challenges of command again. Unfortunately the trauma of this most recent nightmare is too fresh to allow him to return to sleep before then. Kirk drags himself out of bed. He locates a shirt in the dim light and hauls it on, wincing slightly as his abdominal muscles twinge again.

Jim pads barefoot into the hall (regulations be damned, it's his ship), squinting in the harsh lights. The gleaming floor is refreshingly cool against his feet, and the omnipresent soft hum of the impulse engines is soothing as he paces through the familiar corridors until he reaches the observation deck. Besides the bridge, this is his favorite place on the ship. The observation deck is normally a popular place for both the officers and crew to relax, but it is completely deserted at this hour. He settles on a padded bench near one of the large windows and looks out into space.

The metallic bauble of Space Station J6 seems to revolve slowly as the Enterprise follows her proscribed orbit, surrounded by twinkling stars. This deep in space, in hard vacuum, the stars should not be twinkling. Jim knows that this twinkling is a trick of waste gases exuded by the station and the Enterprise's thrusters distorting their light, but there is still something reassuring about the glimmer of the stars. He shifts slightly, leaning against the back of the bench. The stars all look so peaceful from a distance; their violent surfaces blurred by hundreds or thousands of parsecs.

One of those deceptively peaceful stars surrounded by lazily revolving planets is Janus Gamma, the home star of the Janusia system. Kirk feels a chill run down his spine as his eyes pick the faint white dot of the star out of its parent constellation. Four of them managed to escape that hell; the fifth would never return. The Janusians denied until the very last that they had anything to do with the kidnapping, the death of Lt. Riccardo Giacomo, or the attempted murders of Pavel Chekov and James Kirk. Even after their crimes had been exposed by Spock's deluge of evidence, they still refused to return Giacomo's body.

Kirk sighs and runs a hand through his tousled hair. He had been unconscious in Sickbay when Scotty, as acting captain, commed the lieutenant's widow. McCoy had flatly refused to let him make the call. Kirk felt terrible that he had not been able to do it himself, and his guilt was compounded by the fact that they would have nothing to return to her in the end.

By the time he notices Spock's presence, the Enterprise has completed another orbit and Janus Gamma is obscured by the body of Station J6. "Captain," the Vulcan states from over his shoulder.

Kirk glances back at the first officer. "It's four in the morning, Spock, and we're not on duty."

Spock chooses to ignore the rebuke. "I was not expecting to find anyone here at this hour."

"Yeah, neither was I," Kirk replies. He gestures to a place on the bench next to him. The Vulcan stiffly takes a seat, his eyes in space. "What's on your mind, Spock?"

"As a Vulcan, I am accustomed to rising early," Spock says. There is a hint of defensiveness about his words. He has recovered from his own ordeal on Janusia and the resulting altered brain chemistry, but Kirk can sense a faint note of vulnerability about him. "I occasionally come here to meditate."

Meditate my ass. Kirk suspects Spock has not meditated once since returning from Janusia, but that was none of his business. He shoots the Vulcan a pointed look. "You're in full uniform, and like I said, it's four in the morning. What's on your mind?"

"I could ask you the same question, Captain," Spock says evasively.

Kirk scowls. He is not in the mood for word games. "I had a nightmare we were back on Janusia. Chekov was dead. She killed Bones in front of me."

Spock understood who she was. His demeanor softens slightly. "I was unable to sleep and I did not wish to disturb Lieutenant Uhura," he admits. "I…have had difficulty resting since we returned. My mind has been troubled of late."

"Nightmares?" Kirk asks curiously. Better to focus on someone else's problems than his own.

"Not precisely, Captain." Spock's quick dark eyes are never still; Kirk notices they systematically trace through the local constellations. He is clearly troubled about something. "It is a problem of a more…existential nature."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not particularly," Spock replies, but he cannot hide a note of resignation in his voice. The corner of Kirk's mouth twitches slightly in amusement. They sit in silence for a few moments before Spock manages to work up the nerve. Finally, he says, "I am unaccustomed to regarding my Vulcan heritage as a weakness."

"Weakness?" Kirk asks, confused by this unexpected admission. He knew Spock had fully embraced his Vulcan ancestry from an early age. The vast majority of the crew (himself included) thought of him as Vulcan, rather than half-Vulcan. Spock was proud to be Vulcan, though he would vehemently deny having feelings of pride.

"I was targeted by the Janusians because of my Vulcan heritage," Spock starts, and Jim suddenly understands. "They exploited my Vulcan flaws quite efficiently—"

Kirk interrupts him. "The Janusians exploited everyone's flaws efficiently, Spock."

Spock's mouth presses into a thin line. "Indeed."

"But the thing is, they aren't flaws," Kirk explains. He's had plenty of time between Janusia and Sickbay to reflect upon Lilith and her terrible machinations.

"I must disagree—"

"Do you want to know what I think or not?"

"Jim, you will tell me regardless of my opinion on the matter," Spock retorts dryly.

Kirk chuckles. "Look, I don't think being part Vulcan is a weakness at all. I think you're just not used to seeing your human heritage as a strength."

Spock attempts to look impassive. "Explain."

Kirk looks at him thoughtfully. "Being part human has always been a problem for you, Spock. I've been in your head, remember? So on Janusia, they target you because you look Vulcan and they have ways for…dealing with Vulcans. And suddenly being Vulcan is a problem."

"Your point, Captain?" Spock interrupts, sounding nettled.

"The point is, Spock, you're half human. Whatever they did couldn't work because you're not fully Vulcan."

"It was still effective-"

"Effective, maybe, but not successful. No, let me finish. You blew up and let off some steam. Would a full-blooded Vulcan have been able to do that?"

Spock flexes his stiff right hand, the hand that had been mangled against the stone wall. "No."

"Likewise, would a human have been strong enough to overpower that guard so we could escape?"

"I do not believe so," Spock replies guardedly, but there is thought behind his words.

"Look, by your reasoning, caring about my crew, my friends, is what got us into that mess. She thought it was a weakness. But what Lilith didn't understand was that caring about you guys is what gave me the strength to get us out. None of it is inherently a strength or a weakness, it's all in how you look at it." Kirk shrugs. "Vulcan, human, whatever. You are what you are, Spock, and if you'd been any different, we'd be having a very different conversation."

"Indeed," the Vulcan agrees dryly. "I failed to consider the…problem in that light. Your conclusions are quite logical. I thank you for your assistance."

Kirk half-smiles. "No problem, Spock."

It feels very good to be back in uniform, Kirk decides in the turbolift, with his silver captain's rings around his cuffs, his face clean-shaven, and his hair neatly combed. The door has hardly opened when he is greeted with by chorus of "Captain!" and "good morning, sir!"

Kirk acknowledges them with a wave and strides onto the bridge for the first time in almost two weeks, grinning widely. "Thanks everyone, it's good to be back."

The bridge is reassuringly familiar, with everyone at his or her accustomed post. He nods to Spock and winks at Lt. Uhura as he passes her station. She rolls her eyes, but she can't hide a smile. The only major change is Lt. Kevin Riley at the nav console instead of Chekov. Bones had assured him Chekov would be fit for duty in the next week or two, but it was still weird seeing Riley's reddish hair and freckly neck beside Lt. Sulu at the helm.

Lt. Cmdr. Scott immediately vacates the captain's chair as Kirk approaches. His grin is nearly as wide as Jim's. "So eager to leave, Scotty?" Kirk teases. "I bet Doctor McCoy would be glad to arrange another day off-duty for me…"

Scott is halfway to the turbolift before he replies. "T' be quite honest, sir, I'm quite keen t' get back in mah engine room!"

Kirk laughs as the engineer disappears into the turbolift and drops into the captain's chair with unrepentant joy. He nods at Dr. McCoy, who has ostensibly appeared on the bridge to make a report about Chekov. Really he is there to keep an eye on Jim, who has promised to stick to light duty and not work over his allotted shifts. Kirk thought he was being ridiculous (seriously, how hard was sitting in a chair?) but Bones would not be dissuaded.

"Report, Mr. Spock?" Kirk asks, easily falling back into his old routine.

Spock immediately looks up from his post at the main science station. "The situation with Janusia has been formally resolved. The Federation has voted to reject their entry petition, on grounds of bribery. Admiral Pike reports several high level ministers are currently under investigation for their sudden acquisition of lucrative dilithium mining tracts on Janusia. He assures me that 'heads will roll'. Moreover, the Janusia system has been declared extremely hazardous and off-limits to both Starfleet and civilian traffic."

"Great," Kirk observes with obvious relief. "I'm glad to hear it."

To his amusement, Spock cannot resist adding: "Your…testimony, sir, was integral in obtaining the travel ban."

McCoy scowls deeply. Kirk swears he can hear the doctor's teeth grinding. Chuckling, he swivels to look at Lt. Uhura. "What's the latest from Starfleet, Lieutenant?" the captain asks her.

"New orders just came through, sir. We've been ordered to escort a Federation convoy from Starbase 16 to the colony on Greshna Omicron."

"Escort duty?" Kirk complains, swiveling around and making a face at Spock. "Escort duty?"

"And what's wrong with escort duty?" Bones grumbles from over his shoulder.

Kirk glances up at him. "Nothing, other than it's boring as hell."

"That's not a bad thing, Jim!"

"There's more, sir," Uhura interrupts, the roll of her eyes practically audible. She pauses to listen to the transmission. "Two Klingon birds-of-prey are reported to be harassing Federation ships in the area. We are to track these ships and respond if necessary, Captain. They are sending us their last known coordinates now."

"Klingons," Kirk grins. "That's more like it."

McCoy groans. Spock raises an eyebrow. Kirk laughs.

"Coordinates received, sir," Lt. Riley pipes up from the navigator's post.

Kirk is immediately all business again. "Lay in a course, Mr. Riley. Mr. Sulu, take us out of orbit."

The helmsman's fingers fly eagerly across his console. "Aye, sir!"

"Course laid in, sir," says Riley.

"Ready for warp, Captain."

Kirk steals a quick look around the bridge. Somehow it felt almost like he had never left. Everyone (even Bones, no matter how much he might complain), is eager to begin this new mission. He looks out into the stars, his eyes resting momentarily on a certain distant white star. He will never forget what happened on Janusia, but neither will he dwell on it. Especially not with marauding Klingons to deal with. Kirk smiles and leans back in the captain's chair.

"Punch it, Mr. Sulu."

Well, that's all, folks! Please review; I'm particularly keen to find out how you guys like the ending! :)