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“They’ll come looking for me,” you said, straining against the rubber cording digging into your wrists. You were lashed to some sort of support beam, but you couldn’t remember being tied there, or how you had gotten to this place. You had been on an away team, a standard exploration of a new planet, and then...pain. You thought you vaguely remembered the sensation of being carried, but it was fleeting, like the memory of a dream. “You’ve kidnapped a starfleet officer. They won’t leave me.”
You had to squint to make out shapes in the dank little hideout you’d been taken to. There was some sort of com panel on a wall nearby, it’s blinking light providing the only light. You couldn’t tell much other than that the room was cramped and cluttered with that seemed like broken furniture.
“I’m counting on it,” came a voice from the darkness. You knew that voice. You knew it better than any voice in the galaxy.
“Data?” You whispered. “What’s happened to you?” If anything, your fear only increased at his voice. In the few times when Data had been...compromised, he had proven himself to be a near unstoppable force. His strength and abilities, so wonderfully useful in normal circumstances, made him a terrifying adversary.
He laughed, a low, reverberating chuckle that rumbled in your chest.
He touched the panel on the wall and the room lightened but only slightly. He wasn’t in uniform, looking bizarrely casual in a black sweater, and there was something...off about his face. It was impossible to put your finger on what it was exactly. His expression was softer somehow, but also darker. He walked over to you slowly, lowering his face close to yours. You waited for him to speak, but he didn’t. He merely waited, his pale eyes searching yours with an intensity that seemed beyond Data.
“...Lore,” you breathed.
He smiled. “Good girl.”
You strained more against the cords, panic flooding your body. Lore was ruthless, he thought nothing of human life if it got in his way. A corrupted or malfunctioning Data might have hurt you accidentally, but whatever Lore did to you would be done maliciously and on purpose.
“Data will stop you. He’ll be looking for me.”
“Not right away,” he said, still smiling as he straightened to his full height and wheeled around on his heel to pace the cramped space. “The Enterprise is in a little trouble of its own. It will be some time before anyone even notices you’re missing.” He looked back at you over your shoulder and sneered. “You’re not exactly a high level member of the crew, are you?”
“I’ve often wondered what it was he saw in you. A little nobody. You know that he and I are the pinnacle of human achievement? Surely he could do better than some silly ensign.” His pacing had brought him back to you and suddenly he reached out, snatching your hair and ripping out the comb which held it in its regulation updo. Your hair tumbled down into your face and you blew it out of your eyes.
“Pretty, though,” he said, as though admitting something against his will. “But then that has no effect on him, does it?” He was closer now, bracing one arm on the wall behind you and running his fingers through your hair with the other hand.
“What are you doing?” You hissed
“Making him jealous.”
It was your turn to laugh. “He doesn’t get jealous.”
He slid his forefinger under your chin, tilting it up so that he could study the contours of your mouth in the dim light. “That hurts you, doesn’t it? Oh he will come after you, it’s what he’s been programmed to do. You’re a starfleet officer, as you said. But he won’t worry about you. He won’t be horrified at the thought of you here, helpless, with me.” He lowered his voice to a low hiss and leaned so close to your ear that you could feel his hot breath on your neck. “He could walk through that door to find you with your legs wrapped around me, screaming my name, and it wouldn’t break his heart. It wouldn’t enrage him. Now, what kind of man does that make him, hm? What kind of lover?”
“It doesn’t matter. He’ll come for me. He’ll stop you. Whatever you’ve done to the enterprise, whatever your plan is with me, he’ll outsmart you,” you said, but your voice wavered. Maybe it was exhaustion (how long had you been tied here?) or just the disorientation of it all, but his words stung more than they should have. Everything he said was true, and he was clawing into old wounds that you’d thought had healed. You felt hot tears pricking your eyes and wished your hands were free to wipe them away. Normally you’d be able to bury that old familiar hurt, but in your weakened state it was harder.
He dragged his thumb across your cheek and you could hear him breathing in the tight, silent room.
“You’re right,” he murmured, so softly it was almost as if he were talking to himself rather than to you. It occurred to you that this was someone who was used to long stretches of solitude. He might not have spoken to anyone for a very long time. “He can’t get jealous. But I can. Look at you, you ought to be terrified for your life. You know my reputation, you know how cruel and awful and murderous I am, and yet it isn’t fear that made you cry. Only your love for a man who will never, ever, love you back could do that. It’s such a waste. It isn’t fair.”
“Untie me,” you said, feeling as though you were interrupting a soliloquy.
He seemed to snap back to himself, looking at you with clearer eyes. “No.”
“You can’t hurt him like this. Just let me go.”
He shook his head. “No. No, I won’t let you go. I won’t let you throw your life away on him. Can’t you see? You’re wasting it!” His lips were pressed into a hard, angry line now. His eyes flashed with such anger that a cold drip of fresh fear trickled down your spine. It was awful, terrible to hear that familiar voice raised in desperation. You looked away, unable to bear the sight of him.
“That love you have for him,” he continued after a shuddering breath. “He won’t accept it. He can’t. He’ll never take it from you. It will sit there inside you until it rots away and burns a hole right through you. And for what? Why torture yourself? Give it to me instead.”
Your gaze shot up to him to find that he was looking at you with an expression almost of surprise on his face. As though he’d said something he hadn’t planned on saying.
“What the hell are you saying?” you whispered fiercely.
“He’ll never want you the way I want you,” he said, doubling down. He inched even closer, so that the front of his body pressed against you. He caressed your cheek and you turned your eyes away again. How often had you ached to be this close to Data? To feel the heat of his skin and the beat of his heart through his clothes? To be touched this tenderly? You squeezed your eyes shut and whimpered. This was cruel.
“Why resist?” he whispered against your ear, letting his lips drag against it. “I can be what you want me to be. Say you want me. Say you love me. And I’ll be your slave. Please.” He kissed your neck once. Twice. And more, peppering his lips down to trace your collarbone.
“You have me tied to a fucking pole, Lore! You knocked me out and dragged me here like an animal!” You yelled, the pain and fear and anger all mixing together in a sudden explosion. “You don’t know a damn thing about love. You think you’re better than him because you can feel, but you’re as hopeless as he is.”
Rage flashed in his eyes but this time you steeled yourself against his wrath. For a brief moment you thought he might hit you, but he merely flexed his jaw and his fists. “I don’t know a damn thing about love. You can thank Dr Soong for that. You can thank Data for that.” His voice was harsh and angry, but it was the pain behind his words that frightened you most.
For a heavy moment, the room was absolutely silent save for the sound of breathing. How long had it been, now? You wondered how long it would be until someone from the Enterprise found you. Was it really true that they wouldn’t notice you were gone?
“No one ever taught me,” he said finally. He’d gotten control of himself again. He was no longer yelling. “You have to teach me.”
“Untie me.”
“Will you run?”
You shook your head. “I won’t run.”
He didn’t hurry, his hands dragging against yours as he reached behind you and slipped the knot apart. Your shoulders ached as you brought your hands in front of you and massaged your wrists.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
You didn’t want to. It was painful looking into that face that was so familiar knowing that the man behind it was such a stranger.
“Look at me, please. I need you to look at me.”
When you brought your eyes up to his, your breath caught painfully in your throat. The fear for your physical safety was dim now, but you found that you almost missed it’s distracting immediacy. Being left to face Lore’s pain and loneliness was something different, something even worse. Your heart ached.
He took your hand and slowly, gently, raised it to his face. “Haven’t you always wanted to touch this face?” he asked. “I can give you what he can’t. What you’ve always wanted. You just have to teach me what to do.”
“Kiss me.” Maybe you were out of your mind. Maybe the blow to your head was altogether more serious than you’d first thought. But he’d gotten under your skin there in the darkness and the quiet. There was a painful thrumming in your chest, an ache that had been suppressed for far too long and, now that it had been given a way out, was running wild. None of this felt real. Maybe it was all a dream, after all.
He didn’t give you a chance to take your mind. His arms wrapped around you tight, pulling you to him as his lips crashed down on yours. Bruising at first, then so soft it seemed like an apology. You gripped at his chest, all rational thought blasted out of your mind. His passion was like a storm, breathlessly beautiful, but dangerous. He could rip you to shreds, the way he kissed. The whole galaxy shrunk down to that moment that was almost, almost the fulfillment of every secret longing you’d been carrying ever since you’d joined the Enterprise.
“You’re thinking about him,” he said, his lips still against yours. His hands roamed your body and his breathing was labored.
“I can’t help it.”
“Try harder.” He gripped you tighter, then, in a swift motion, had you pinned on your back. You gasped as his hand moved between your legs, sending a sudden shock wave of pleasure up your spine. It was completely automatic, you wouldn’t have been able to resist it if you tried. You gripped his shoulders, trying to catch your breath as he tore at your shirt with his teeth. “Lore!” you cried out, and you felt him grin against the flesh of your breast, apparently pleased with the sound of his name in your mouth.
Suddenly there was a crashing noise nearby. The sound of voices. Lore sat up, leaving you gasping.
“Shit.”
He looked down at you for one wild moment, calculating, deciding. And then he was gone. Like a shadow, he left through some unseen passage. Only moments later a team in Starfleet uniforms found you. You blushed at what you must have looked like, your clothing torn, your lips bruised and your face flushed. Dr Crusher was at your side in an instant, waving a tricorder over you. It was all a blur as you were transported to sickbay and brought back into the light of real life. The questioning would come later, but what could you say? You’d been kidnapped by Lore. Whatever his plan had been, it had failed. If the doctor had been able to determine the state you’d been in when she found you, she was tactful enough to say nothing.
The rest of it lingered like a dream in the back of your mind, and as months passed you were able to put it behind you. Mostly. But on dark nights, when you lay sleepless in bed, you wondered where he was then. If he’d found someone to love him.