Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Me so hung'y."

Spike (bloodislove) wrote in dunwichgame,
@ 2025-05-06 23:28:00

Entry tags:

buffyverse: spike, star trek: khan noonien singh

SPIKE

KHAN

WHO Spike and Khan
WHERE Pickman
WHEN Mid-evening
WHAT Spike checks in on Khan
Status Ongoing
WARNINGS Very tired Khan. Talking about wars, death, being labrats, ect.

It had been a few days since Spike had heard from his new acquaintance, and although it was curiosity about the super-man that had reminded him of it, it was also a noticeable absense. Just before his shift ended he'd texted the relative stranger, inviting him to meet after he was relieved of duty.

At the end of his shift, however, there was no reply. Shrugging it off and paying his tab he started to walk home. At least it was early enough in the evening he'd get to spend some quality time with Darcey.

Still, as he turned to walk home he hesitated. Something felt... off.

Pausing on the cool street and lighting a cigarette he took his phone out again and opened it, dialing Khan instead of texting this time. He tilted his head and took a long drag before he picked up.

"Hey. It's your favorite undead Englishman," he smirked into the reciever, then exhaled. "Was just curious if you were up for that follow-up drink tonight."

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bloodislove
2025-05-07 10:01 pm UTC (link)

"Hm. Different realities, time jumping. Science and magic..." he snorted slightly. "Knew every time I brushed against rot like that I should about face and leave. Regretted everytime I have, Dunwich included. Though... it has it's perks." His scorn and voice had softened and a small, nearly dreamy glint and his eye and he stared into space for a moment. Then he snapped his attention back and nodded. It was good that two of the three seemed to get along with him, Spike had experienced worse odd than that. "Ah. That explains that term," he finally shrugged. "I've never interacted with him much myself. Didn't feel we'd get along, I'm not exactly the 'formal' or 'rigid' type."

The offer made him paused, so he shrugged. "Where'd you build your home? You said you were traveling a distance longer than human lifespan, so I'm guessing you were some sort of pilgrims. How many went? How far did you get?"

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 12:12 am UTC (link)

"Eighty-five, including me," Khan answered, all too happy to talk about whatever Spike wanted to know. There were so few people who wanted to hear his side of things, after all. "We aimed for Delta Pavonis, about 20 light-years away, which had a candidate planet for colonization, but we knew that might not be our final destination. Unfortunately, we were knocked off-course by what was probably a rogue asteroid. Twelve of our number died in their cryotubes. The rest of us were adrift in space until some deep-space scans located us all that time later. But I was the only one who was revived, and for less than altruistic purposes." Hence the vengeful mass-murdering story. But he was content to tell the tale in whatever order Spike wanted to hear it.

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 12:35 am UTC (link)

"Eighty five..." Spike murmured under his breath, pondering that. It sounded to him like the same groups that sailed on wooden ships across uncharted seas in his day. Less shiny, but the same journey.

"I'm sorry for your losses," he said somberly and sincerely instead of bringing up the comparison. Then he did he best to catch the other's eye. "You were their Captain, yes?" It would have been the only reason to wake him alone during a problem.

"Since you mentioned it," he started slowly, carefully keeping his tone even leaning towards curious. "What were those 'less than altruistic' purposes?"

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 12:48 am UTC (link)

Khan nodded quietly. "Captain, Emperor, friend, lover to some." He didn't even know what became of the twelve who had perished. Whether they were disposed of as so much medical waste or used for postmortem studies.

He sighed. "In 2258, when I was brought out of cryosleep, Earth was part of an interstellar governmental entity called the United Federation of Planets. And the uniformed service of that Federation is Starfleet. It's primary mission is as a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada with a strong history of exploration and scientific endeavor. It's not a military as we would think of it in this day and age. But there were elements at the upper echelons that felt, in light of recent aggressions from other interstellar governments and rogue provocateurs aimed at the heart of the Federation, that Starfleet should become more militarized. And those elements were all too happy to capitalize on an Augment's advanced intelligence and experience with military actions. I wasn't revived to help my people. I was revived -- and held against my will -- to create those weapons and the ships which would use them." And that was only the beginning of that nightmare. "I should point out that this was a clandestine operation known by a small group of the Admiralty. The rank and file knew nothing about it until it was far too late to intervene."

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 01:03 am UTC (link)

That story was something, to be sure. It was hard to keep track of because it touched on so much, but what he understood was familiar enough to follow.

"You were used," he said simply. "Not woken up by some... ship system or rescue team. You fell in with the power-grabbers."

He had a soul now, and could feel sympathy. He felt it for this one. He could see the flinch at the end of the summary, though, and decided not to press on that nerve. "So... from genetic project, to pilgrim, to Captain, to captive... where's the part figure you in becoming an emperor?" His tone wasn't condescending or skeptical, just ensuring he'd gotten the initial order right. It was also slowed to give the other time to catch his breath, if needed.

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 01:15 am UTC (link)

"Oh, that's ancient history," Khan replied with a chuckle. "In 1986, in the aftermath of some serious violence between Hindus and Sikhs, I raised an army of Augments and took over India and Pakistan. But a small conquest does not an emperor make. Within ten years, I ruled everything from Japan to Korea, China, Mongolia, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, all the way to Lebanon and Palestine and into northern Egypt and southern Türkiye. Some people said I was Alexander returned. And I managed to distinguish myself, even at that time, as the only Augment world leader who wasn't perpetuating violence against the standard Human populace. The only wars I fought after stabilizing India and Pakistan were defensive in nature. Yes, I had to restrict some freedoms, but I believed wholeheartedly in the cause of world peace, and the only way you can lay the groundwork for that is through cultural evolution, education, and time." Another sigh. "But history is written by the victors. What would later be called the Eugenics Wars is framed as a fight between Humanity and Augments, wars fought with disease and violence, and by the time the International Criminal Court in The Hague put what amounted to a bounty on the head of every Augment or Augment descendant, we were already succumbing to what we called the Augment Killer virus. I should've realized sooner that you don't create human weapons without some sort of kill-switch. That's what led to us fleeing to space. And even then, the ship could only hold so many."

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 02:06 am UTC (link)

"Ah. So... the name 'Khan'. Not just an homage, then?" Spike said slowly. Most of the details the man described started turning into the low end static, but the vampire had seen, fought, and caused enough war himself to understand the broad strokes. He'd always been interested in the tactics of his betters, too. Conquering most of Asia seemed to fit that bill.

"The problem with conquering is the more you do it the more blades are looking for your throat. Gets a bit much after a while for anyone," he nodded, understanding. He sighed that track away. If that was history enough to laugh off it wasn't worth revisiting. "So, caught up on the old history. What was that second... unfortunate event you mentioned?"

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 02:36 am UTC (link)

"The answer to that is both yes and no. The name Khan was given to me by the surrogate who carried me," he answered, smiling softly. "I was one of the few who knew my surrogate because she was the director of the project. She had very high hopes for me from the start, even dubbed my customized training Project Khan. But there were those among my followers who called our territory the Great Khanate, and at the time, I had enough of an ego to go along with it." It was an oddly fond memory. All of those Augments who'd pledged to him often called him 'My Khan' as if it were his proper title. And what young man didn't like that sort of pedestal to be venerated at?

"For that, we fast-forward back to 2258. I was compliant with what was asked of me because I knew the only way to escape with my people was to smuggle them out somehow, and advanced long-range torpedoes seemed the best way to do it. Coming out of cryosleep is a delicate process; I didn't want to risk waking them up before they were safe. So I hid them, all 72 of them, one in each torpedo. But I was discovered, and at that point, all I could do was run. And my captors had threatened to kill my people so many times I reasonably concluded that that's what had happened once I was gone. So I made some devilish deals and blew up the facility in London where I'd done all my work. That attack, which in 2258 was a level of violence unheard of on Earth for a couple of centuries, triggered a protocol where the senior captains and their first officers were gathered and briefed on the threat. That meeting occurred within hours of the London bombing at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco. And I knew my captor would be there. So when that meeting got underway, I shot every person I could get a clear line-of-sight on. I missed my captor. But I killed my version of Jim Kirk's captain and mentor, which I assure you neither Kirk nor his science officer Spock took well.

"I escaped to outside of Federation space, but they took their ship -- armed with the very torpedoes I thought destroyed -- and followed me with orders to kill. And when I was threatened with those torpedoes, I realized what had happened and surrendered. There was some back-and-forth while they realized that the story they'd been told was far from accurate, and Kirk came to his senses enough to realize that he needed to return with me alive and unharmed in order to sort through all of the cloak-and-dagger villainy that had infected Starfleet. My captor didn't appreciate that and came in the advanced ship I had built to finish the job and probably start the very war he was so looking forward to.

"Kirk ran, but the Enterprise was more than outclassed by the Vengeance. My captor disabled the Enterprise within spitting distance of Earth, and Kirk realized that the only way to save the Enterprise was to board the Vengeance and take it from inside. Which went rather well, until Kirk double-crossed me. He wasn't willing to let me take my people and just leave, not after the crimes I'd committed, so what ended up happening was that I traded Kirk for my 72 torpedoes. Which Spock gave me. Already armed. They detonated in the weapons bay of the Vengeance, and that was the second time I was reasonably assured that my people were dead. So I took my crippled ship and I scuttled it. I came up short, though. Missed Starfleet Headquarters by about half a mile, but put a three-mile gouge in the heart of San Francisco. Total body count for the three attacks was 40,113 people. They don't let you walk away from something like that." There were some other details too, but that was the gist of it.

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 03:00 am UTC (link)

It was another few wings as he listened to Khan's story. He blinked. Jim had always seemed intelligent to him, but too flippant to be in charge of something like that and come to a rational conclusion.

The end of the story bothered him, though.

"So you racked up that tally, with proof enough to get one of these 'enlightened society's captains to believe you enough to work with you, and they still didn't kill you when you washed up on their shores later?" That didn't make sense if they'd knowingly used 72 lives to try to kill him in an honest battle. "They still put you back in cryo?"

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 03:17 am UTC (link)

Khan nodded at the question. "Honestly, I think putting me back in cryosleep and just letting the machinery fail as the decades passed was the most humane punishment they could come up with. I don't think they knew what else they could do. Capital punishment is outlawed in the Federation in all but a very few cases, and those situations are really more like compassionate euthanasia than an actual punishment."

He sighed and took a long sip of his beer. "Now, in all fairness, it was Spock who apprehended me, and he was utterly enraged at the time. I have no doubt he would've killed me if he hadn't been stopped. And he had good reason to. You see, the Enterprise was also damaged and falling out of the sky, and Kirk saved the ship by climbing into a live warp core -- lethal levels of radiation -- and manually realigning things to give them enough power to overcome the pull of gravity on a 700,000-metric-ton starship. When I was brought back aboard the Enterprise and saw that all 72 of my people were stowed in Sickbay in their cryotubes, I couldn't not help their chief medical officer resuscitate Kirk. Their humanity is a debt I can never repay, even if I spent the rest of my life trying. Do I still have serious issues with Starfleet? Yes. But with Kirk and his people? No." He sighed. "Unfortunately, Spock does not feel the same way, and the Jim Kirk who is here isn't the same people who experienced all that the Kirk from my reality did. But when Spock arrived, I needed to come clean about all that had happened in my reality before Spock took control of the narrative, so that put a bit of a damper on my friendship with Jim. Oddly, though, not with Christine."

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 03:38 am UTC (link)

Spike nodded, understanding. "I've had a few from my world show up and take pretty unkindly to me for... well, not exactly similar reasons, but close enough. They wanted me dead, I had less violent but not great farewells with them myself. It gets harder when you're cramped in a small community with other people who know versions of your own world."

He chuckled at the comment. "Yeah. Well you seemed more amused by him flirting with that sop at the bar than intimidated. As for the rest, well. Cheers to findings the people who aren't like their people." He only tipped his bottle neck towards the other, making no indication for them (Khan) to reach out himself. He looked better with some food in him and was speaking more fluidly, but it was hard to tell if that was him pretending or actually gaining strength.

He paused after a slow drink, thinking back over the story for a moment before he shrugged. "For what it's worth I've never been to space, and I was never particularly a fan of San Fransisco. You're alright by me."

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 03:46 am UTC (link)

Khan actually was feeling better. Food and drink helped immensely, and being able to tell his entire story with relative non-judgment was such a balm for his soul. He still needed sleep some time soon, but it wasn't quite time for Christine to stop by, and he was enjoying the downtime.

"I'm glad to hear it," Khan replied with a soft smile. He took a moment to check on Karuna and make sure her heating pad was still on -- they didn't make them without timed safety shutoffs anymore -- before returning his attention to Spike.

"So now that I've rattled on about my three lifetimes of misadventure, what about you? Where does your story begin?"

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 04:13 am UTC (link)

Spike was glad to see it, and the air seemed to lighten. Much better than what he'd walked in on.

At the question he smirked slightly. Turnabout was fair, after all.

"My story's... well, you'd probably find it mundane by an emperor's standards. I was born on the low end of humanity's gene pool in England, 1853. I was the last in the line of a barely aristocratic family that was one step away from being tossed into the dirt any month. We had one servant, for my mother, and one cleaning maid who came in on tuesdays to dust worthless artifacts. I myself was a pathetic nobody and a failed poet. They called me 'William the Bloody Awful'."

Hey, Khan had been pretty honest with him as far as he could tell.

"After some unfortunate circumstances I was turned into by a mad witch of a vampiress with whom I was utterly enthralled. I either spent my time as her lapdog trying to impress her, or tearing the globe up to impress her and make her come back to me. Made new names for myself. Spike the Bloody. Spike the Slayer-Killer, but it started all becoming a mouthful. So, I've been Spike for the last few decades or so.

Then I met a new Slayer. Tried to kill her, you know, to maintain and improve my reputation. Unfortunate events to be explained later I was grabbed by the government's 'supernatural' division and experimented on, implanted with a chip that kept me from being able to feed from humans. 'Neutering', essentially. That forced me to work with her instead. Stop the government psychos, and she'd keep bringing me pig's blood so I wouldn't starve to death. I wound up falling in love with her. Hence the whole 'regain my soul' fiasco to prove I was worthy of her."

He sighed. It was a pretty embarrassing story overall, but he'd had his moments of glory and few regrets. He smirked and swirled his drink slightly, looking up evenly.

"Did you want to know anything in particular?"

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 04:22 am UTC (link)

"Yes," Khan replied with a smile. "Why is it that the psychos always end up in public service? Can't they have decent, self-respecting jobs like slightly-above-average serial killer or something?" It was an expression of great sympathy because he had very little love for the clandestine, the-rules-don't-apply-to-us workings of government. Even when that government had been his own. "Do you still write poetry?" It was an honest question, especially since Khan recalled that Spike had called Darcy his Muse.

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 04:35 am UTC (link)

A snort of agreement was the vampire's response.

At the question he hesitated, considered his answer, then smirked.

"Yes. Recently. But only for my Lady. She got me a bit knackered and I let slip what I spent twenty odd years as a mortal doing, and when I tried to recite some she... well, she laughed. But not the way they used to. No idea if I'm any better than I was, but I'm sure not being a spineless, stuttering fop helps." And Darcey's eyes would sparkle at him when he tried, and his heart would melt.

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 04:42 am UTC (link)

Khan could tell that Spike truly was in love with Darcy. He didn't have to say a word about it. It was all over his body language. "I should be so lucky as to have such a Muse," Khan confessed. "There was no time for poetry toward the end of my reign, and after that, I was more motivated to design for the sword than the pen. As much as I hated working under duress, the design process itself wasn't terrible. How did you and Darcy meet?"

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 04:53 am UTC (link)

Spike let out a low laugh, then tilted his head back a bit to look back at the picture of the kitten on the wall behind him, appreciating it again. "I think you've found one, mate," he grunted, straightening his head and grinning and the fuzzy little purring machine.

"I met her here, naturally. She's from a different universe, but we struck up a conversation outside at a party. We talked through the night, till the sun forced me to leave. I wasn't sun-proof, yet."

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	best_of_tyrants 2025-05-08 05:01 am UTC (link)
	Khan smiled at that. "I'm thankful for the independent confirmation," he remarked. "I think I was half-asleep when I drew that one." To the comment about being sun-proof, Khan added, "I had wondered how you were out and about before the sun set." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bloodislove
2025-05-08 05:20 am UTC (link)

"The creative part will probably come back more when you've slept a bit," Spike chuckled. "Though that space between dreaming is when they usually whisper to you, or so I hear. I suppose I never stopped being a romantic, even while I was busy being a monster."

"Eh. I was the first vampire in history to kill two Slayers, first to chase down my soul and reclaim it on purpose... I figured, why not be the first to walk around in the sun? Besides, for all it's faults a lot of sciences and a lot of magics come through this place. I had help getting my chip removed, getting my soul returned, and getting some kind of magic SPF ingrained into my skin. The first two were necessary, the last was more of a surprise for Darcey." He felt guilty when his limitations made things trickier or more difficult for her, even if she never held it against him. "Not that it hasn't been brilliant not spontaneously combust in the smallest sunbeam, of course."

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 12:43 pm UTC (link)

Khan could very much relate to that sentiment on romanticism. He had always been very protective of those in his charge even when he sent them on life-threatening missions for the cause, and all of them had done monstrous things only to come home and switch gears into a large, relatively stable family unit. Even he had fallen in love before, to a woman long gone now. "Those two things are not mutually exclusive, no matter how much people wish they were," he agreed.

He smiled softly at the revelation that Spike had found a way to live in the daylight. "Love does make for innovative solutions to stubborn problems," he remarked. "For me, it was developing a sign language that my children could use and most everyone else could understand without needing to learn an entirely new communication system. They were both Autistic, but my son Simran was nonverbal about eighty percent of the time. My daughter Hira did a lot of translation for him."

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 01:21 pm UTC (link)

Spike hesitated. Commenting anything about one's children was usually ill advised, especially between relative strangers. Still, he appreciated Khan's openness about it.

"Sorry to hear of their troubles. But it sounds lucky they had each other, and you for a father," he murmured finally. Especially an emperor who could protect and provide for them. He cleared his throat and his tone evened into normal. "I doubt my father even knew if I was boy or girl. He left before I was born, though I don't blame him fleeing his witch of a wife. And she only got worse over time."

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 09:10 pm UTC (link)

"They were the most amazing, infuriating, adorable little ones I'd ever known," Khan remarked quietly. "I would've taken them with me to space if I could've, but the supercooling technology of cryogenic suspension was never designed for or tested on young children. It would've killed them to attempt it. They stayed with their mother when we fled. She at least had the means to protect them. I'm told at least one of them survived to have children of their own. But I would give up just about everything to hold them again."

He listened to what Spike said, nodding. "That is the unfortunate reality of the world, isn't it? Sounds like you were dragged up from day one. How long did it take you to get out on your own?" Khan had escaped containment at fifteen. Which in his time was still several years away from full adulthood, but Spike might've been considered a young man at that age.

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 09:16 pm UTC (link)

Spike had no answer for that, so he simply nodded.

At the question he cringed. "27. I never left her house, the family estate. Not so strange in those days except I was an aging and unappealing bachelor, so I would have stayed there until the house was taken." He sighed. "Still. She was my mother. When I was turned into a vampire I went to her, to turn her. She was sick, dying, and I was a devoted son even as a newborn demon. It... didn't end well. Didn't turn out great for me either. Out of the frying pan, you know? I belonged to Dru from then on. When she wanted me around, anyway."

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best_of_tyrants
2025-05-08 09:28 pm UTC (link)

"Such a different world it was," Khan mused with a sympathetic smile. "Though to be fair, the property was yours by right. Why give it up when you could wait it out?" Still, he had a great deal of understanding for a childhood like that.

"I think you might've had more patience and devotion for your elders than I ever did. I had far more love for the other children in my cohort -- the ones who survived, anyway -- than any of us ever did for the scientists who created us. We broke free when I was fifteen. And there were a lot of crushed skulls in our wake."

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bloodislove
2025-05-08 09:51 pm UTC (link)

"Technically it was still my dad's. It was back when divorce was as cardinal a sin as suicide. I suppose he ran off to America or something. Mother tried to have him named dead when I came of age, but his family showed proof he was still in correspondence with them and just 'traveling abroad'. He was probably trying to smoke her out so he could return.

"It probably would've served me better to not respect her for so long. Not that I'm proud of it, but I was a sniffling little mother's boy until Dru bit me," he sighed. "And then still until I turned her."

Then he started to laugh. "I bet the breakout was exhilirating. Mine was when the containments failed and all the demons the humans had been torturing and experimenting got loose. The escapees who didn't immediately flee had a grand old time with them."

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