Bonds Know No Distance

[mirroredcommand]

The night was dark and deep and long in space, never ending, without a dawn to break the line between waking and sleep, day and night, beginning and end. It made existence endless, broken only by the silent running of the clocks on the wall, the movements of work, food, and sleep. Without these things, without the sureness of a schedule, time became meaningless. Even the stars could not keep him company.

So after Kirk came and 'visited', time resumed its endless patterns, moving on and on without pause or break or concept. For a man used to near-constant action, it was a form of torture more exquisite then any bit of pain or distress. More then anything, it was a torture that gave him nothing to focus his mind on anything but the swelling pain of the broken bond. It was swiftly becoming over whelming, completely and utterly. There was nothing left to keep the pain away, and with his shields designed only to block out Spock's light intrusions instead of a full on force, they were failing after being buffeted for so long. In short, he was going mad.

His expression showed little of the internal war except for the strong brow being furrowed and the age-lines at the edges of the eyes and corners of the mouth looking thicker. It was his hands that gave him away, gripping fiercely into the fabric of the bed he was reclining on. A headache was throbbing behind his eyes in time with his heart, a thick red-hot band of light that was searing like a knife into his mind. Deeper, deeper with every beat of his heart.

Every part of him was focused on maintaining the failing shields, rebuilding them as Spock had taught him those years ago. He had survived torture from Vulcans who knew precisely what to do in the mind, but could not stop this. This bond that had been forced onto him but in the end welcomed, this bond that had saved his life many times in the past, that had saved the life of his first officer and friend, this bond that had been a respite from a world where one could never relax... this bond was killing him. It would destroy him as surely as any blade to the heart.

SPOCK!

Never screamed aloud, never aloud. Instead, strong white teeth bit firmly into his lip, hard enough to send a trickle of crimson along his chin, down to his jawline. The pain, the strain, had been steadily increasing since James Kirk's visit to his cell, as if the reminder of the bond and speaking of it had started a chain reaction. He had long since started to keep his eyes closed [was it hours? minutes? weeks? centuries?] because at least this way the room would not spin. He was starting to feel that same spinning in his mind, making his world wobble like a child's toy.

It seemed hours passed this way. A day? Perhaps. He vaguely heard someone calling him, but did not dare respond. Still trapped in the arms of the enemy, he could not let a weakness be seen. The smell of food made his stomach swell and gurgle, but not from hunger. It felt like his entire body needed one thing it could not have. [a universe away]

He did not feel when he stood, instead he felt the world sway, go sideways. Could not feel the floor beneath his feet, the slap of his hand against the wall in an instinctual attempt to keep himself upright. Did not feel when the world tuned him out, blew him out like a light bulb, did not feel when the pain consumed him and his shields finally fell, did not feel when he hit the ground.

The darkness had claimed him instead.

Comments

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

His focus nearly faltered with the pain, communicated so directly through his own mind. All of these complications resulting in painful consequences were beginning to put him off the idea entirely. Yet, he thought of those he cradled now, though of having Nyota's constant loving warmth with him...perhaps it was worth it, overall.

A moment to calm and the let the agony fade, before he walked alongside his counterpart, eyes always forward. Onto the next step.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

The doors to the temple were massive things, ancient in design but crafted of new stone. A fire burned on either side of them, pushing back the darkness, but the fire was thin as if its fuel was running low. The flickering flames showed words carved into the door, thousands upon thousands of words, running into each other and yet somehow all separate. Vulcan, Terran, and like the first set of doors, the ancient Terran language of Latin. They were closed, and from the look of it, locked, protecting the inner most place of Pike's mind.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

He had not considered, until his first pon farr, what a true sharing of minds entailed. The terrible naked vulnerability of the connections he shared with Jim and Leonard - much less the finer tendrils of connection with the others...

At the time, relief coursing through him that Jim was not truly dead, that he had not in fact killed his best friend, Spock would have said that there was no justification for the weakness that accompanied such ties. He surveyed the landscape of this Christopher Richard Pike's mind - this was the result of a bonding. This pain, this loss, this encroaching madness.

But he had spent too many years watching his parents, their secret glances with touching fingers. And this mind through which he traveled was also the result of the bond, shaped by it, sustained and preserved by it in a world that would brook no weakness in its alpha predators. And his own bonds...

He had collapsed. As a Star Fleet officer that alone should have been enough to convince Spock that the bonds were a bad idea. But he would not be the man he was, the officer he was, without the relationships he had with his t'hy'lara and there was no altering that.

Greater than the sum of their parts. The bonds made them more than they were on their own. The same seemed to be true for this Pike and his Spock. Together, they created something out of nothing, out of less than nothing. That was worth preserving.

We request entrance, Christopher Richard Pike.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Silence. Stillness. Nothing.

The flames crackled.

Then, suddenly, there was a low, deep growling (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbkwSDX8_kc) from directly behind them.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

He did not appreciate the sound of that at all. Spock turned quickly to face whatever had crept up behind him, whatever devilish construct they were about to face now. However, he also backed up in the door, feeling the rough stone of it press into his thoughts along with the failing heat of the flames. He splayed the fingers back against the door, feeling carved inscriptions beneath his fingertips.

Maybe this would work, there wasn't anything to say it wouldn't besides his counterpart's failed request. All that mattered was getting inside to the sooth the pain, the ache practically radiating off the stone. Spock closed his eyes, and whispered.

Sanoi, Christopher.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

He did not turn to look. Their path lay forward, not battling whatever had appeared behind them.

He placed his hand beside the younger Spock's and echoed the request. His own reserve was not helping.

Sanoi.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Before them stood what their entrance had warned of. Hic Sunt Dracones. Here Be Dragons. It was a massive scaled creature of giant proportions (http://www.3aka.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/three-headed-dragon1.jpg), a monster of legends, glaring at the intruders. Light rippled across glimpses of black scales edged in green, and three sets of glowing eyes watched the Spocks from three reptilian heads.

It roared, shaking the earth under their feet.

...Who?

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Us.

He would not allow himself to feel fear in this situation, though the dragon was terrifying in its own respect. Looking away from it would do him little good, though. The ferocity of it threatened to suffocate him.

Me. Spock.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

The thread of a bond to his counterpart, Christopher's Spock, was still there - Christopher had walked it to find his lover, his mate, his t'hy'lara.

Spock threw open his own gates, wide, pulled on that thread as hard as he could to draw in the feel of Christopher's own Spock.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

One of the dragon's heads came down in a rush of speed, a second one a split second later, maws wide open, breath of sulfur. Their teeth shone silver in the light, gold a moment later, dripping with ropey saliva, threatening to crush.

Then, all at once, they stopped only mere inches from both. One head growled low in the younger Spock's face, watching.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

He blinked at it, unfazed, and kept still where he was. Such defenses continued to waste time, and their goal was right behind them, so close.

Christopher. He said, more forcefully. Allow at least one of us in. We will not hurt you.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

There was danger here. An obvious statement, Spock knew - they had been in danger the moment they had entered his mind. But to be separated.... The younger Spock was vulnerable, so alone still in his mind, and this Christopher Richard Pike, with the aching ends of his bond, would recognize that.

He focused on the thread, on the taste of his Spock that Christopher had found through this Spock's mind and broadcast it through his hand on the door, the flavor and scent and texture of Christopher's Spock.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Silence reigned except for the low, steady growl of the dragon. Then the doors cracked open behind Spock, opening only the smallest distance to allow a single person to creep through its stone defenses.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

Spock looked at his counterpart beside him. He was the more experienced one here, the one with the greater foundation and security with the protection of two bonds. His own mind was still vulnerable, open to connections, easily manipulated (in the grand scheme of things), and already so-called emotionally compromised by all of this...

But he meant what he said before the meld.

He slipped in through the opening.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

This was, Spock admitted to himself, perhaps the sort of behavior that Jim objected to when Spock himself exhibited it - the self-sacrificing tendency to rush in.

Still projecting Christopher's Spock as strongly as he could, Spock tried to slip in after Spock, binding them together as tightly as could be imagined.

Spock!

He offered his hand to his counterpart - they would share minds, blend consciousnesses, present a unified identity.

If only they had thought to do so before the dragon had appeared. Still, heightened circumstances were often useful for stimulating new ideas.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

There was hesitation. He knew what he was offering, the benefit that would come with. It was logical to take his hand.

But there were emotions here, more easily triggered because of the effect of the human mind around him, the walls pressing into his thoughts. Jealousy, arrogance, he could remedy this problem by himself even though he knew he couldn't, why couldn't the other just stick his own bondmates--

Grudgingly, Spock took his hand.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

Spock's shields were already open, blasted down to broadcast the sound and fury of Christopher's Spock. The contact with his younger counterpart was all that it took to hurtle the two together, no change in landscape this time but a curious bending of bodies, a lowering of boundaries, a strange dual consciousness overlaid with their individual observing voices.

[original-fine.livejournal.com]

Jim cried out, softly, at the sudden twist of something inside him, something he didn't understand and couldn't place, that had to do with Spock and the bond and something else he didn't recognize, and dammit he should have asked for help with this sooner. Because all he could do, for now, was stand there and watch and be Jim as be Jim as solidly as he could, hoping it might help somehow. The bond was there, but it was different, a tension in it he had not felt before.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Inside the doors was, without a doubt, the core of Pike's being. An oasis in the desert, sprawling and beautiful, subtle and simple. There were plants spreading tendrils across the way, the stream bubbling up and going across the way. It was completely surrounded in stone about four feet high, then spread out into an open view of the sky above.

It was immediately obvious that something was missing, and that was the stars. There were none, just an empty dark sky that was settled into sunset-dusk.

Across the way was another huge set of doors. Trailing down the pale stone were streaks and handprints in blood. At the foot of the doors was Pike, his eyes closed and very still.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

They-who-were-Spock did not need to confer with one another. They rushed to his side, name on their lips, a strangely doubled sound even in this entirely mental construct.

Christopher.

[cso-spock.livejournal.com]

The blood, the doors, and the scenery were all taken into account at once, while simultaneously they focused on Pike, examining him and his quiet anguish. At his side, they reached out (because Spock wanted to reach out, to touch and console), and continued to speak. Let us soothe you.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

No matter the verse, a bond was a bond. Nearly a month of strain, kept out of sight of the enemy, weakness held in check, and now it had all come to a head like a cancer. Without a doubt, Pike's Spock knew what had happened, possibly it was even the reason for contact between the two ships.

Pike's eyes opened and focused on Spock, combined and yet single, and stared at the younger Spock. Here, the gloves seemed to be gone or had been torn off, as his hands were torn up on stone, bloodied heavily from mental attempts to contact his bond mate.

SpockSpockSpockSpock. It was a litany of sound, one that vibrated low with pure need and exquisite pain. A different state then the older Spock had found himself in after his bond mate McCoy had been removed from the universe under different circumstances, but Pike had no second bond mate to stabilize him at all.

[sehlatbear.livejournal.com]

They-who-were-Spock arranged themselves around Christopher, the elder at his head, cradling it, the younger at his side to grip his hand, touch his face. They-who-were-Spock offered up their own bonds as balm, fitted to the ragged ends of Pike's mind, flavored with his own Spock, across dimensions.

We are almost here. Let us ease you until we are here.

[iron-command.livejournal.com]

Their saving hands and minds protected Pike's from the darkness of madness, pushed back the night that was threatening this private place within his mind. The bond that needed repair, needed its mate, stretched too thin to sense, coiled around They-who-were-Spock and their own bonds and latched on, finding, feeling, needing.

Spock! A single word that spoke of such longing, such love, fell silently from Pike's lips and heavily from his mind. They were in his inner most more, where only his t'hy'la had gone before, where there were no boundaries of training and there were no masks of strength and bravado and command.

[kirktastic.livejournal.com]

Kirk walked across the room to the nearest comm and quickly linked up to the bridge, "Navigation. Head at warp 4 to the coordinates Uhura and Spock provided."

"Yes, sir!"

Kirk leaned his forehead against the wall, eyes closing. Fuck, it felt like there was something going on that he should know about, something that fucker had going on inside of his head. Didn't matter what happened, as long as Spock and Spock were safe and Pher's Spock came and got him. Took him away. They'd be vulnerable for who knew how long, open to attack, dangerous...

He sucked in a hard breath when he felt something pop like a bubble in the back of his mind. Kirk turned and stared at the bed, whole body going tense. He could feel it, feel them, almost acutely aware. "Spock..." Whispered unconsciously, not even realizing it.