My Regrets and Fears, Washed Away

Khan, with startling accuracy, knows exactly where the two armed guards are outside of the bathroom. They are not necessary. Khan has no immediate plans to mutiny or escape. He had come willingly to the USS Enterprise; he was not going to leave it until he had want he wanted.

The heavy fabric of his coat falls to the ground. He pulls his shirt up and over his head, catching his reflection in the mirror opposite. He very nearly gives himself a sardonic smile but stops himself. There is no time for emotionalism, not yet, not now. His time will come, he is sure of it. Not right now.

Khans looks away from his beaten, bloodied, dirty reflection, steps out of his pants, and turns to the shower. It takes a few seconds for him to figure out the dials. (The shower is set to default on sonic, which, to Khan's eye, seems to have absolutely no purpose.) Once the water is running, just a touch on the side of steaming hot, Khan closes his eyes and steps into the shower.

Finally the day has come where he has the means to achieve the one thing he wishes to achieve. There is nothing between him except a crew of normal human beings led by a Captain who is far too emotional to be a starship Captain. Khan isn't worried about manipulating the one the crew calls Captain Kirk; the man in question is such a free spirit that Khan will have no trouble getting what he wants from him.

Water streams into his face. Khan closes his eyes.

He is so close to the one thing that he thought he had lost. When he had gone rogue, he had been sure that Marcus would kill the rest of his family. But seventy-two torpedoes... Seventy-two. There are such things as coincidence but this is not one of those times. Khan can feel it, feel it like the water rushing over his body, as close and as tangible as the shower he is experiencing.

Still, he knows better than to get enthusiastic. He is secretly pleased, secretly excited and ravenous for revenge and redemption of something that he has lost, but he must not let his excitement get the best of him. He needed to stay calm, cool, collected. To rush headlong into this would end in failure again. He will not fail. He must not. He would rather die and, in a kill or be killed world such as this, if he fails, he knows that it will be likely.

For his family, however, Khan is going to try. For his family, there is nothing that he would not do. He abandoned them once. He will not abandon them again.

And Marcus (because Khan knows that Marcus is somehow involved in this), oh, Khan will not forget about Admiral Marcus. No, no, no. That man made his life hell. Khan has not forgotten... nor will he ever forgive.

Admiral Marcus has the wrath of a mistreated augment on his hands, but Khan will settle that score when he has further information on the situation. Soon. Very soon.

He opens his eyes. Blood and grime swirls down the drain as he stands under the stream of the shower.

The steam is filling him with new life, new purpose. Rejuvenating him in ways that he thought impossible ever since the presumed death of his family. He knew that he could destroy this entire ship, that he could destroy Admiral Marcus, too, technically speaking. But now? Now he felt that he actually could.

He could not wait to begin.

Because that shower scene was such an angsty (beautiful) shower that I had to write something for it. My muse was just slow in coming up with an idea about it. Let's face it. The first time I saw it, I was stunned.

I do not own Star Trek. Thank you!