In the Star Trek Mirrorverse, Khan rules the Terran Empire with his Empress Molly at his side. He is descended from the first Khan Noonian Singh, and the Augments have ruled for three hundred years. One day a stranger appears, one who bears a striking resemblance to the Emperor and claims to be none other than the legendary Sherlock Holmes, whose genome was the basis for the Augment program. What will this mean for the three of them?

A gift for the lovely and talented benedicted-cumberbatched, who needs a little 'oomph' to help get her through her thesis research! The story will be M and will feature polyamory, so if you're not interested, read no further! This will be a two or three parter at most.

Part 1 – A Meeting of Like Minds

The Emperor Khan and his Empress Molly were entwined about one another, kissing hungrily as they entered their private, most sacrosanct suite of rooms in the royal palace. Khan had removed Molly's gown, leaving his bride in her soft yellow slip and thigh-high black leather boots; his hands were twined through her hair, loosening the tight plaits, when a sound, almost inaudible to non-Augmented ears, put them both on guard. Without any hesitation Khan pushed his Empress behind his well-muscled form and whipped out a phaser, training it unerringly on the as-yet-unseen form of the invader whilst simultaneously calling out for his personal guard. The glint of steel from one of Molly's small hands showed that she, too had reacted without hesitation, pulling her dagger from the top of her boot and readying herself for battle like the warrior she was.

"Don't bother, I've disabled communications," a voice spoke from the darkness. "Lights to one half," it added, and the intruder stepped into view.

Molly had let out an involuntary gasp at the sound of that voice, and once he got a clear look at the other man, Khan understood why: he was, in almost every aspect, identical to himself. "Well. Whoever engineered you could have at least got the hair right," he sneered, looking his doppelganger up and down contemptuously. The riot of dark curls on the other man's head were nothing like his own sleek locks, and were more dark brown than the near black of Khan's hair.

"Actually," the stranger corrected with an easy smile, "they got your hair wrong. Allow me to introduce myself – Sherlock Holmes, at your service." And he gave a mocking bow.

"That's impossible," Molly said, speaking up before Khan could, her voice flat and cold. "Sherlock Holmes has been dead for three hundred years."

"In cryosleep, actually," the other man – Sherlock Holmes, genetic ancestor to the Augments, was it possible? – corrected her. He tossed something toward them while remaining at the far side of the antechamber, near the door to their bedroom from which he'd first emerged. Khan caught it automatically, not bothering to wonder if it was a weapon of some sort; if the man had wanted to kill them, he would have done so already, instead of giving up the advantage of surprise he'd held.

It was a data disk; Khan examined it briefly before returning his gaze to the other man. "I presume this holds evidence of your claim," he said.

Sherlock's eyebrow raised in a quizzical manner. "Surely my presence here, in your supposedly most secure and impregnable chambers, is proof that I am more than some mere assassin." His expression darkened. "Instead of questioning my credentials, which can be easily proven to be authentic, you should perhaps be asking why I'm here, why I risked death in order to breach these chambers and speak to you both."

"Very well," Khan replied, reholstering his phaser in spite of Molly's gasp of protest. He deliberately turned his back on the other man – yes, he would accept him as who he claimed to be, for the moment at least – in order to gently press his queen's hand down, lowering her weapon in a symbolic gesture of trust. "He's correct, my love; he could easily have murdered us instead of deliberately making his presence known. We will listen to him."

"And if he's lying or simply attempting to lull us into a false sense of security," Molly snapped, "then we'll kill him, yes?"

"Of course," Khan replied, and she unwillingly slipped her knife back into its boot-top sheathe.

Sherlock remained silent and unmoving during this little discourse, and waited courteously for the Emperor and Empress to move further into the room, taking up seats on the low, comfortable sofa where they had so often coupled before speaking again. Again, they were deliberately putting themselves in so-called inferior positions to him, and although Molly was visibly uneasy about doing so, Khan remained calm, both inwardly and outwardly. He had learned to trust his instincts over the decades of his rise to power, and right now they were telling him to trust this man, and he was confident it had nothing to do with their superficial physical resemblance. So he sat back, and listened.

"I was placed into cryosleep, along with seventy-two other volunteers for the Augment program, in the early 21st century, after the second series of world wars broke out," Sherlock said, without preamble or further explanation. Nor did either Khan nor Molly require such; they knew the history of the world far too well. Until the Augments had risen to power during the Vulcan incursion, Earth had been a war-torn planet, seemingly bent on its own destruction. Now it was a powerful Empire, the center of a multi-world coalition that spanned a large part of the Alpha quadrant and had vanquished such enemies as the Klingons and the Romulans with ruthless ease.

"Everyone believed that I had been killed, which was what Dr. Soong and the others in charge of the program wanted them to believe," Sherlock continued, taking the seat Khan silently offered, directly across from the other two. Khan didn't miss the way Molly tensed at the other man's movements – nor did Sherlock, whose eyes darted over to meet hers as his lips curved in a sardonic smile that Khan had seen in his own mirrors more than once.

"They'd already extracted genetic material to continue the program, but wanted to preserve the first group of volunteers, and we agreed – upon pain of death," he added with a bitter laugh. "Ironic, wasn't it? They altered our genome in order to make us the perfect humans, to bring peace to the world, and then threatened us with our own deaths and the deaths of those we cared for in order to force us into hibernation. But I digress; we were, indeed, placed into cryosleep and hidden away, our location lost after Dr. Soong and the other geneticists had been murdered when their supposedly secret, impregnable compound was discovered and overrun." He glanced around the antechamber as he spoke, then returned his mocking gaze to Khan.

"Point taken," the Emperor said impatiently. "Continue. Who released you?"

"Someone who wanted to use me to murder you, impregnate the Empress, take your place, and allow myself to be used as a puppet, with all the power devolving upon them. All this was to be in exchange for the lives of my comrades, who had been hidden away from me. However," he added with an expressive curl of his upper lip and a tone of deep irony, "it appears that my captor was far less clever than he believed himself to be, and so I found and freed them."

"Who? Who dares betray us in this manner?" Molly snarled, half-rising from her seat. She'd clearly gone from doubting their uninvited guest to believing him, much as Khan himself had done. The man's story was too far-fetched, too easily disproven, for him to be lying. Unless he was stalling for time, but Khan prided himself on his ability to read others, Augmented or not, and saw no such deception in this man's face, heard no lies spilling from his lips. He could be a clone, of course, programmed to believe everything he said, but under the circumstances, Khan had no difficulty in putting such a possibility aside.

Sherlock nodded at the disk Khan still held. "It's all there. But if you need a name right now…" He turned his head and gave a sharp whistle. "Bring him out," he snapped.

Khan and Molly were once again on the alert, weapons to hand and on their feet as the sound of movement came from the darkened sleep chamber. Then two figures emerged, a man and a woman, both somewhat older than Sherlock, shorter as well; the man with ash blond hair, steely blue eyes and set features, the woman a golden-haired blonde with a jagged scar running along her jawline below cornflower-blue eyes flashing with barely restrained fury. They each held a phaser, and between them they dragged a bound and unconscious third figure, one well known to both Khan and his Empress.

"Admiral Marcus?" Molly said incredulously, flashing the new intruders a glare which they met stoically. "The evidence of his treachery had better be unassailable, or I can assure you, all three of you and your accomplices will meet with very unpleasant fates."

Khan was proud of the way she faced the unfavorable odds so unflinchingly; when they were alone he would be sure to demonstrate that pride very, very thoroughly. Alone, or perhaps with one other joining them…if, of course, Sherlock was who he claimed to be and wasn't dead or imprisoned with his co-conspirators by then.

With equal gestures of contempt, the two newcomers dropped their burden to the floor and stepped away, keeping their phasers trained on Marcus and appearing to completely ignore Khan and Molly. Khan scowled, but was impressed; no one on Earth aside from Molly and his second in command Joachim would dare to dismiss him so blatantly. Either they were very sure of themselves, or they were incredibly stupid.

Somehow, he doubted they were the latter.

Molly had taken the disk and opened up a connection to the central database on their private computer. After scanning the disk to be sure it held no viruses or other dangers, she placed it into the reader and ordered the computer to examine the data contained within.

After only few minutes, the harsh male voice responded. "All data confirmed as accurate and showing no signs of tampering or manipulation. Evidence presented confirms that Admiral David Thomas Marcus has performed multiple acts of treason. Recommendation: Immediate execution."

"You know I'm telling the truth now," Sherlock said, shooting a contemptuous look at Marcus before returning his attention to Khan and Molly. "And I know that you've summoned your guards. Will you be subjecting myself and my compatriots – and no, there are no others hidden in your rooms, although of course you'll want to confirm that for yourselves – to a session in the Agony Booth, or have we proven ourselves no threats?"

"You risked much by coming here," Khan replied as he studied the man sitting opposite him. Molly rejoined him, sitting next to him and resting her head on his shoulder. Khan put his arm around her, pulling her close, stroking her thigh and watching with interest as Sherlock's gaze darted just for a moment to those languid movements. The other man had a reputation for being cold, dispassionate to a fault, but Khan saw quite clearly that he simply presented an emotionless façade to the world. Much as he himself did.

The thought of exploring just how passionate his new ally might be brought a stirring of arousal, and he could tell by the way his Empresses' eyes were fixed on the other man, the way her fingers dug into his own shoulder, that she felt it as well.

"Your comrades will be detained under guard in a separate location until I'm satisfied that you haven't somehow managed to deceive the computer," he announced, just as members of his elite private guard poured into the room.

They held their weapons at the ready and wore expressions of chagrin on their faces beneath the rigid masks they tried to project. But Khan knew them all, and knew that each and every one of them blamed him- or herself for allowing this potentially dangerous invasion of his sanctuary. "Take these two to the south tower," he directed, nodding at Sherlock's companions. The young commander, a fierce young woman with mahogany skin and implacable black eyes and the incongruously girlish name of 'Sally', snapped off a salute. "Keep them under guard, but treat them courteously," he cautioned her.

"And the Admiral?" she asked, eyes flickering down to the floor and back up to meet her Emperor's gaze. Khan recalled that she had no love for the older man, but had admitted to no particular reason for not trusting him other than her gut instincts. She was always doubly alert when he was in Khan or Molly's presence. She would derive a great deal of satisfaction if it turned out that Marcus was, indeed, the traitor he appeared to be.

"Take him to the brig, but he is to undergo no interrogation or torture until the evidence on this disk has been independently verified." He nodded at the computer, and Sally silently jerked her head at one of the guards, a bearded soldier whose lean form hid a wiry strength. Phillip, that was his name. He removed the disk from the reader, offering his Empress a deep bow as he did so, then straightened and awaited his next command.

Sherlock and his two compatriots had remained immobile this entire time, except when they had willingly surrendered their weapons. As the older pair were escorted from the room, they gave Sherlock brief nods, and Khan noted the way they moved together; lovers at the very least, if not husband and wife. The woman had given birth to at least one child, and he made a mental note to discover if that child was still with them or had been taken from them before their enforced cryosleep.

"What about your twin, my Emperor?" Sally asked, cutting into his musings.

He blinked sleepily and allowed a dark smile to curve his lips as he replied, "Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be staying here, with the Empress and myself. For a more…personal… interview."

Sally gave a jerky bow, eyeing her Emperor's lookalike suspiciously. Khan knew she didn't like it, but she also knew that Khan and Molly were more than capable of taking down a single intruder if he caused trouble. Of course she insisted on a full body scan and confiscating his clothing to ensure he had no hidden weapons; of course Khan agreed. And surprisingly enough, Sherlock seemed entirely unperturbed by any of it. If anything, there was a sense of anticipation about him that told Khan the other man knew exactly what was planned…and was looking forward to it.