miss_m_cricket (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
miss_m_cricket) wrote2009-07-14 12:00 am
miss_m_cricket) wrote2009-07-14 12:00 am
Fic: Reaper of Bones
Title: Reaper of Bones
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miss_m_cricket
Fandom: Star Trek Reboot! / Doom Crossover.
Rating: R for language and goriness
Pairing: will be Reaper!McCoy/James T. Kirk
Disclaimer: Own neither Doom, nor Star Trek.
Summary: Starfleet has ordered the Enterprise to Mars to reactivate the Olduvai facility and Bones is once again forced to face his demons...
A/N: So I finally got my Doom the novelisation in the mail this morning and already it has sparked off so many ideas that I can't keep up with them.
A/N 2: Italics are scenes from "Doom" the movie.
Part 1
Reaper of Bones
”Hey Sarge, what’s the deal with the sister?”
“Reaper’s parents led the first team of archaeologists to Olduvai. They died in some accident when he was a kid. She followed in their footsteps and he didn’t.”
“Nah what I meant was, is she single?”
~*~
He could see them; see the bright unfamiliar uniforms, see the fear, the apprehension. Humans never changed, they would always fear a predator in the dark.
He could smell them too, could practically taste the hot flesh and blood. After centuries of living off carcasses, frozen meats and other less appetizing things the smell of the humans was almost too much to resist. But resist he did, first he must watch.
One of the humans glanced behind, anxious eyes roving over the silent corridors, hands shaking on the handle of the unfamiliar weapon he carried. The red shirt of the man was soaked with sweat and fear rolled off him in almost tangible waves.
Prey.
The human was unimportant, he could tell that. The leaders were the man in gold and the two in blue moving beside him. This man in red would be inconsequential. And although the human didn’t have that potential for the C-24 to turn him into an ally, the man would have his purpose.
On that redshirted man he would feed, and then he would be ready.
~*~
Bones nostrils flared as an eddy of recycled air brushed past him, bringing a horribly familiar smell to his nose. Mutant, and close to them too if he could catch that strong a whiff of it.
His eyes roved around them, hands clutching tightly around his phaser.
The faintest whisper of sound and he whirled around. The other men, shocked by the almost inhuman speed of the doctor, jumped aside. Next second Bones had leapt past them, shooting rapidly at a shape disappearing behind a corner.
The men were left staring at the shadowed corner around which their adversary and the Chief Medical Officer had disappeared. The whole thing had happened in a matter of seconds and all of them were struggling to catch their breath.
“Captain.” Spock said slowly, once he was sure his composure had been regained, “We are down another man. Logically we must assume that this threat is too much for us to accomplish anything against. Truly it seems the only one of us with any real likelihood of matching up against these mutants is the Doctor. I suggest we return to the shuttle and to the Enterprise.”
“We are not down.” Kirk snapped back, “Bones cannot be counted as a casualty; we have no reason to suspect he is even injured at all!”
“I was not referring to Doctor McCoy.” Spock’s dark eyes roved over the group of Starfleet personnel, counting once more, “Ensign Brocard is now also missing.”
Surprised, Jim too counted the group and looked at the scared faces looking back at him. Spock was right, Brocard was missing, and a soft expletive dropped from the Captain’s lips.
“Captain, we must get back to the Enterprise.” Spock insisted.
“We have to wait for Bones.” Jim argued back, “What you want to just leave him here?”
Spock’s silence said everything.
“No!” Jim exploded, anger suffusing his face, “We are not leaving him here. How can you even suggest that Spock!?”
“The Doctor is better equipped to handle this situation than anyone else.” Spock replied, seemingly unruffled, though Kirk noted tightness around his mouth. “We are a liability to his efforts to neutralise this threat as he is trying to protect us instead of stabilizing the Facility.”
“He is outnumbered.” Jim hissed back, stepping closer to his First Officer, ignoring the anxious looks on the rest of his crew’s faces. “Leaving him would be like murdering him, abandoning him. I can’t do that Spock; he is my best friend and a senior officer on my ship. We cannot leave him here.”
“Then I suggest a compromise.” Spock acceded, seeing that stubborn look on the Captain’s face that he knew meant Kirk would not back down, “You must return to the Enterprise Captain, send back some reinforcements but not return yourself.”
“What?” Jim stared at the half Vulcan with a look of horror on his face. “You want me to run, leave you and Bones and my crew here? Fucking hell Spock you know me better than that!”
Spock didn’t get a chance to answer because a voice called out from behind the corner that the Doctor and monster had vanished behind, “Hold your fire.” Bones came around the corner, hair mussed and a little sweaty but otherwise unharmed. “Brocard is dead.” He told Spock and Jim, walking past the other men who parted respectfully letting him reach the Captain and First Officer.
“Dead-dead? Or Turned Dead?” Jim asked, relief flooding him at the sight of his friend still whole.
“Dead-dead.” Bones looked as grim as the name he had once borne. “We need to get everyone out of here, blast this place from space with the Enterprise’s weaponry.”
“We have orders to stabilise it. And then resettle it for the scientists.” Spock reminded the Doctor.
The look that McCoy sent him would have sent anyone bar the Vulcan cringing. “Orders.” Reaper growled, glaring at Spock, for it was Reaper looking out of those eyes. “I am so fucking sick of orders.”
~*~
”This is what you’re here to protect.” Reaper hissed at Sam, removing the data disk from the monitor and shutting off the gruesome video of the man being inserted with C-24 and mutating horribly.
“It doesn’t make any sense.” The forensic archaeologist looked pale; she was shaking her head, trying to deny what she had seen.
“You trusted them, they lied to you.” Reaper turned back to face her, pity in his dark eyes, “They used you Sam.”
“If he perfected xeno-genisis....”
“Christ, don’t you get it?” John interrupted her, hating how unhappy she looked, “It’s this place. It’s Hell, it always was.” He could feel his eyes burning with suppressed emotion, shining with bitten down tears and tightened his mouth, pushing it all away. “This shit ends here.”
“What are you doing?” Sarge spoke up from where he had been silently watching the confrontation, as Reaper moved forward, snatching up the disks.
“We need to destroy these disks.” Reaper’s voice was low, harsh, and rougher than usual with the force of the emotional storm brewing within him.
“That’s UAC property.” Sarge growled, stepping forward, close beside his second in command.
“Fuck UAC, if we take this back, they’ll just...” Reaper had raised the disks to illustrate his point and Sarge’s hand snapped out, gripping his hand and more importantly the disks inside Reaper’s grip.
“We take. The data. Back.” Reaper’s face was shocked, even imploring, as he listened to his CO’s words.
“Sarge, don’t you see what’s going on...”
“I didn’t see shit!” Sarge interrupted Reaper forcefully, glaring down the other man, “And I ain’t paid to see shit. I have my orders and so do you.”
The disks were wrenched out of Reaper’s hands and he looked away, hating himself at that moment for backing down. Giving up.
“Is this everything?” Sarge asked Sam, giving her the same look that he had given her brother.”
“I-I...”
“I said; is this everything?” he roared at her.
“I have three more to download.” Sam stuttered.
“Then do it!”
“Sarge we got a problem,” the Kid’s voice broke into their headsets as Sam moved over to the data station, Reaper anxiously trailing her. “One dead scientist is missing.”
Sarge turned to them, his gaze even more baleful than before.
“Now.”
“What you just want to leave her here?” Reaper asked, snarling at his CO.
“She has a job to do.” And Sarge left.
Reaper couldn’t go, he couldn’t go and leave his sister unprotected, “Here,” he said, pulling out something from one of his pouches, “This is Portman’s comm. Now you call if you need help okay?” The look he sent her was more like the brother she remembered, than she had seen in years, “You gonna be alright?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Alright, I’ll see you soon.” And he gave her a small smile before following his CO out the door.
~*~
Glee filled him as he listened to the conversation between first the gold shirt and one of the blue shirts and then the gold shirt and both blue shirts. This was perfect, beyond perfect. His revenge would be beyond anything he could have hoped for, something that would destroy his greatest enemy.
He could smell them, below them as he was, under the grate. One of the blue shirts smelt odd, not something familiar and not something particularly appetising either. He would give that one to some of the newer mutated men; they would be hungry enough to fall on the flesh without worrying too much about the taste.
The Gold shirt smelt delicious, clean and fresh, he could feel his jaws salivating in anticipation of the feast to come. That man was important, so he would have to be careful about not giving in to the urge to feed without first completing his revenge.
The second blue shirt, he smelt so familiar, a scent that had haunted him for 200 years. Unlike all of the others this was the one man that he did not smell as Prey, or food. Oh no. This man was a Threat, a Competitor, and a Danger.
Reaper.
He had dreamed of this for so long, hungered for it more than he had for the sweet taste of fresh flesh.
The monster that had once been the man known as Sarge shot off down the corridor. He had a plan now. He knew what exactly he was going to do to destroy the Reaper.
And he laughed, a horrible, monstrous laugh, which filled the hallways with the sound of his triumph.
~*~
Bones heard the laugh, and it only served to fill him with more anxiety. His dark eyes moved to Jim’s face and then Spock’s, feeling the pressure growing deep inside him.
“We need to go, now.” He told them, Jim opened his mouth to argue but shut it again when Bones glared, “We can argue about what to do when we are back on the Enterprise.”
“The Doctor’s idea is sound Captain.” Spock agreed quietly, “Rushing into this will only increase the likelihood of our deaths.”
Jim nodded and instantly Reaper took over.
“C’mon then.” The accent was strong, the only evidence that the man was as charged up on adrenaline as the rest of them were, his face calm, eyes constantly moving as he led them through the halls.
They almost made it.
A few passages away from the Pressure door leading to the Shuttle all hell broke loose. Monsters leapt at them, still new enough to still bear the recognisable faces of their comrades. Screams filled the hallway as Reaper fired his phaser, trying to keep them back but realising quickly that he was outnumbered.
He blasted the ones in their way and yelled to Jim to go, go, go! Yelled at Spock to get Jim out of here! Saw the First Officer grab Jim’s arm and yank him along with him as they ran towards the shuttle.
Leaving Reaper, Bones, John Grimm to deal with the monsters on his own.
~*~
The battle raged across Olduvai, with Bones fighting for his life, and the monsters fighting for the chance of freedom. He made it to the infirmary, locking the Nanowall behind him and looking around. The place had been thoroughly trashed, but there were still things here he could use.
Destroyer’s, Portman’s Mac’s and Goat’s guns were still here, scattered across the room, and he ended up choosing Mac’s thanks to the heft being so similar to his old one. He gripped the butt and curled his fingers around it, activating the weapon with a practised swipe of his thumb.
”RRTS Special Ops Clearance Verified,” the mechanical woman’s voice spoke, ”Handle ID: Reaper” .
All those years, centuries, of pushing who he had been away, but now Leonard McCoy had met John Grimm and he realised that ignoring everything he had been and everything he was had been foolish and dangerous.
He could still be Jim’s Bones, but be Sam’s John too. They were parts of the same man, he could be both.
Shouldering his weapon he looked around for anything else he could use. Nearby he saw a stand full of vials, and with a snarl he pocketed them all.
Goat’s armoured vest was still there, lying on the ground from where they had stripped it off him when they tried to save his life. John looked at the medical bed and his mind replayed the moment when he had lost his first patient.
~*~
”Let’s get this vest off him.” Reaper ordered, sending men of the squad running hither and thither with hand gestures. He was the one with the highest level of medical training, he was their medic and so right now Sarge stepped back and Reaper became the commanding officer. It was Destroyer who had undone buckles and straps and eased off the armoured vest, pouches of ammunition and personal medical effects.
“Got a weak pulse,” Duke informed him, glancing up at Reaper and then back down at Goat’s face as he measured the beats.
“Portman get me a line in here.” Reaper glanced up to make sure everything was being done to his satisfaction and then returned to working on the gashes in the man’s side.
“C’mon man.” Destroyer muttered, attaching an oxygen mask to the bleeding face of the injured marine.
“Kid, keep pressure on that wound,” John heard the tear of the portable sterilized med patch, which signalled that the Kid was following his commands. “How’s the pulse?” he shot at Duke, still measuring even though Portman’s line was broadcasting Goat’s heart beats over the heart monitor.
“I’m losing him.” Duke warned.
“Sam, get me a shot of adrenaline.” The woman whirled around, pleased to be doing something useful.
A few tense seconds later and the heart monitor flat lined. “Shit we lost the pulse.” Duke said just as Reaper lunged for the medical equipment nearby setting Goat up with patches.
“Okay let’s defib.” Reaper called, getting everyone moving again.
“C’mon man.” Destroyer repeated, watching Reaper anxiously. The buzz of the defib’s warming up was the only sound for a second before Reaper shouted ‘clear’ and slapped them down on Goat’s chest. The marine jerked almost violently, and the monitor beeped a heartbeat. Once, twice, three times.
Reaper didn’t even hear Sarge barking a question at Samantha he was so focused on his task.
Flat line again and another confirmation from Duke, “I’ve lost the pulse.”
“Shit.” Swore Reaper, “Okay, gonna defib...Clear!” and another shock was thumped into Goat’s body. One beep, two... “C’mon...” flat line once more. “No response.”
“We’re losing him.” Duke breathed, fear on his face.
“Sam, give me that adrenaline.” Reaper barked, not giving up and snatching it from her. He injected it into the pale, blood splattered chest, looking up at the heart monitor as it beeped once, twice, three times, “C’mon you son of a bitch.” Flat line, “Okay, going again...Clear!”
One beep and then a long flat line. Reaper couldn’t look at everyone’s faces, just leaned forward and turned off the monitor. He couldn’t stand hearing that noise, the noise of failure. “He’s gone,” he panted, voice choked from emotion.
Leaning in he tugged off Goat’s dog-tags, to be returned home as a sign of death identification. Then he whirled around, slamming a violent kick into the med station bin, sending it spinning across the floor.
~*~
As a doctor he had seen so much death since then, had so many people he couldn’t save but that had been the first, the first real medical one, and it had stayed with him, just one of the horrors he had endured on that day.
He turned away from the med bay, loaded and cocked his weapon and unlocked the nanowall startling the creatures on the other side and blasting them before they could react. Man, it was good to have a solid old gun in his hands. He felt more like a soldier, more like John Grimm, and less like Doctor McCoy playing hero.
It all came back to him, the checking around corners, and the scanning with his weapon. His phaser was tucked into its holster at his hip but he wouldn’t use it, not unless he had to.
Steadily he stalked the monsters through Olduvai, killing one after another until he was sure he had gotten all of the newly turned, and the scientist left behind.
But he still didn’t settle. He had caught a glimpse of the monster from before, the one who had taken the redshirted Ensign and had instantly known who exactly it was.
His heightened senses flicked, sensing all around until suddenly he paused. Something wasn’t right.
He could sense, a heart beating.
Normally it was a noise he always heard, and so had tuned it out, but these monsters, they didn’t beat with the same pitch as a human. This was a human heart beat.
And it was fast with fear.
Reaper turned around a corner and froze, feeling his own heart stop in his chest.
Jim, was on the ground, bleeding, propped up against a wall, his eyes met Reaper’s own horrified brown gaze and he groaned. “Bones.”
Standing over Jim was a huge monster, bigger than any of the ones who had been before, even the original Stahl. And across its upper back was emblazoned the words ‘Semper Fi.’
The monster turned, and bared its teeth at the horrified Doctor before it. “Hello Reaper.” Sarge snarled.
Part 1 | Part 3
Author:
miss_m_cricketFandom: Star Trek Reboot! / Doom Crossover.
Rating: R for language and goriness
Pairing: will be Reaper!McCoy/James T. Kirk
Disclaimer: Own neither Doom, nor Star Trek.
Summary: Starfleet has ordered the Enterprise to Mars to reactivate the Olduvai facility and Bones is once again forced to face his demons...
A/N: So I finally got my Doom the novelisation in the mail this morning and already it has sparked off so many ideas that I can't keep up with them.
A/N 2: Italics are scenes from "Doom" the movie.
Part 1
Reaper of Bones
”Hey Sarge, what’s the deal with the sister?”
“Reaper’s parents led the first team of archaeologists to Olduvai. They died in some accident when he was a kid. She followed in their footsteps and he didn’t.”
“Nah what I meant was, is she single?”
~*~
He could see them; see the bright unfamiliar uniforms, see the fear, the apprehension. Humans never changed, they would always fear a predator in the dark.
He could smell them too, could practically taste the hot flesh and blood. After centuries of living off carcasses, frozen meats and other less appetizing things the smell of the humans was almost too much to resist. But resist he did, first he must watch.
One of the humans glanced behind, anxious eyes roving over the silent corridors, hands shaking on the handle of the unfamiliar weapon he carried. The red shirt of the man was soaked with sweat and fear rolled off him in almost tangible waves.
Prey.
The human was unimportant, he could tell that. The leaders were the man in gold and the two in blue moving beside him. This man in red would be inconsequential. And although the human didn’t have that potential for the C-24 to turn him into an ally, the man would have his purpose.
On that redshirted man he would feed, and then he would be ready.
~*~
Bones nostrils flared as an eddy of recycled air brushed past him, bringing a horribly familiar smell to his nose. Mutant, and close to them too if he could catch that strong a whiff of it.
His eyes roved around them, hands clutching tightly around his phaser.
The faintest whisper of sound and he whirled around. The other men, shocked by the almost inhuman speed of the doctor, jumped aside. Next second Bones had leapt past them, shooting rapidly at a shape disappearing behind a corner.
The men were left staring at the shadowed corner around which their adversary and the Chief Medical Officer had disappeared. The whole thing had happened in a matter of seconds and all of them were struggling to catch their breath.
“Captain.” Spock said slowly, once he was sure his composure had been regained, “We are down another man. Logically we must assume that this threat is too much for us to accomplish anything against. Truly it seems the only one of us with any real likelihood of matching up against these mutants is the Doctor. I suggest we return to the shuttle and to the Enterprise.”
“We are not down.” Kirk snapped back, “Bones cannot be counted as a casualty; we have no reason to suspect he is even injured at all!”
“I was not referring to Doctor McCoy.” Spock’s dark eyes roved over the group of Starfleet personnel, counting once more, “Ensign Brocard is now also missing.”
Surprised, Jim too counted the group and looked at the scared faces looking back at him. Spock was right, Brocard was missing, and a soft expletive dropped from the Captain’s lips.
“Captain, we must get back to the Enterprise.” Spock insisted.
“We have to wait for Bones.” Jim argued back, “What you want to just leave him here?”
Spock’s silence said everything.
“No!” Jim exploded, anger suffusing his face, “We are not leaving him here. How can you even suggest that Spock!?”
“The Doctor is better equipped to handle this situation than anyone else.” Spock replied, seemingly unruffled, though Kirk noted tightness around his mouth. “We are a liability to his efforts to neutralise this threat as he is trying to protect us instead of stabilizing the Facility.”
“He is outnumbered.” Jim hissed back, stepping closer to his First Officer, ignoring the anxious looks on the rest of his crew’s faces. “Leaving him would be like murdering him, abandoning him. I can’t do that Spock; he is my best friend and a senior officer on my ship. We cannot leave him here.”
“Then I suggest a compromise.” Spock acceded, seeing that stubborn look on the Captain’s face that he knew meant Kirk would not back down, “You must return to the Enterprise Captain, send back some reinforcements but not return yourself.”
“What?” Jim stared at the half Vulcan with a look of horror on his face. “You want me to run, leave you and Bones and my crew here? Fucking hell Spock you know me better than that!”
Spock didn’t get a chance to answer because a voice called out from behind the corner that the Doctor and monster had vanished behind, “Hold your fire.” Bones came around the corner, hair mussed and a little sweaty but otherwise unharmed. “Brocard is dead.” He told Spock and Jim, walking past the other men who parted respectfully letting him reach the Captain and First Officer.
“Dead-dead? Or Turned Dead?” Jim asked, relief flooding him at the sight of his friend still whole.
“Dead-dead.” Bones looked as grim as the name he had once borne. “We need to get everyone out of here, blast this place from space with the Enterprise’s weaponry.”
“We have orders to stabilise it. And then resettle it for the scientists.” Spock reminded the Doctor.
The look that McCoy sent him would have sent anyone bar the Vulcan cringing. “Orders.” Reaper growled, glaring at Spock, for it was Reaper looking out of those eyes. “I am so fucking sick of orders.”
~*~
”This is what you’re here to protect.” Reaper hissed at Sam, removing the data disk from the monitor and shutting off the gruesome video of the man being inserted with C-24 and mutating horribly.
“It doesn’t make any sense.” The forensic archaeologist looked pale; she was shaking her head, trying to deny what she had seen.
“You trusted them, they lied to you.” Reaper turned back to face her, pity in his dark eyes, “They used you Sam.”
“If he perfected xeno-genisis....”
“Christ, don’t you get it?” John interrupted her, hating how unhappy she looked, “It’s this place. It’s Hell, it always was.” He could feel his eyes burning with suppressed emotion, shining with bitten down tears and tightened his mouth, pushing it all away. “This shit ends here.”
“What are you doing?” Sarge spoke up from where he had been silently watching the confrontation, as Reaper moved forward, snatching up the disks.
“We need to destroy these disks.” Reaper’s voice was low, harsh, and rougher than usual with the force of the emotional storm brewing within him.
“That’s UAC property.” Sarge growled, stepping forward, close beside his second in command.
“Fuck UAC, if we take this back, they’ll just...” Reaper had raised the disks to illustrate his point and Sarge’s hand snapped out, gripping his hand and more importantly the disks inside Reaper’s grip.
“We take. The data. Back.” Reaper’s face was shocked, even imploring, as he listened to his CO’s words.
“Sarge, don’t you see what’s going on...”
“I didn’t see shit!” Sarge interrupted Reaper forcefully, glaring down the other man, “And I ain’t paid to see shit. I have my orders and so do you.”
The disks were wrenched out of Reaper’s hands and he looked away, hating himself at that moment for backing down. Giving up.
“Is this everything?” Sarge asked Sam, giving her the same look that he had given her brother.”
“I-I...”
“I said; is this everything?” he roared at her.
“I have three more to download.” Sam stuttered.
“Then do it!”
“Sarge we got a problem,” the Kid’s voice broke into their headsets as Sam moved over to the data station, Reaper anxiously trailing her. “One dead scientist is missing.”
Sarge turned to them, his gaze even more baleful than before.
“Now.”
“What you just want to leave her here?” Reaper asked, snarling at his CO.
“She has a job to do.” And Sarge left.
Reaper couldn’t go, he couldn’t go and leave his sister unprotected, “Here,” he said, pulling out something from one of his pouches, “This is Portman’s comm. Now you call if you need help okay?” The look he sent her was more like the brother she remembered, than she had seen in years, “You gonna be alright?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Alright, I’ll see you soon.” And he gave her a small smile before following his CO out the door.
~*~
Glee filled him as he listened to the conversation between first the gold shirt and one of the blue shirts and then the gold shirt and both blue shirts. This was perfect, beyond perfect. His revenge would be beyond anything he could have hoped for, something that would destroy his greatest enemy.
He could smell them, below them as he was, under the grate. One of the blue shirts smelt odd, not something familiar and not something particularly appetising either. He would give that one to some of the newer mutated men; they would be hungry enough to fall on the flesh without worrying too much about the taste.
The Gold shirt smelt delicious, clean and fresh, he could feel his jaws salivating in anticipation of the feast to come. That man was important, so he would have to be careful about not giving in to the urge to feed without first completing his revenge.
The second blue shirt, he smelt so familiar, a scent that had haunted him for 200 years. Unlike all of the others this was the one man that he did not smell as Prey, or food. Oh no. This man was a Threat, a Competitor, and a Danger.
Reaper.
He had dreamed of this for so long, hungered for it more than he had for the sweet taste of fresh flesh.
The monster that had once been the man known as Sarge shot off down the corridor. He had a plan now. He knew what exactly he was going to do to destroy the Reaper.
And he laughed, a horrible, monstrous laugh, which filled the hallways with the sound of his triumph.
~*~
Bones heard the laugh, and it only served to fill him with more anxiety. His dark eyes moved to Jim’s face and then Spock’s, feeling the pressure growing deep inside him.
“We need to go, now.” He told them, Jim opened his mouth to argue but shut it again when Bones glared, “We can argue about what to do when we are back on the Enterprise.”
“The Doctor’s idea is sound Captain.” Spock agreed quietly, “Rushing into this will only increase the likelihood of our deaths.”
Jim nodded and instantly Reaper took over.
“C’mon then.” The accent was strong, the only evidence that the man was as charged up on adrenaline as the rest of them were, his face calm, eyes constantly moving as he led them through the halls.
They almost made it.
A few passages away from the Pressure door leading to the Shuttle all hell broke loose. Monsters leapt at them, still new enough to still bear the recognisable faces of their comrades. Screams filled the hallway as Reaper fired his phaser, trying to keep them back but realising quickly that he was outnumbered.
He blasted the ones in their way and yelled to Jim to go, go, go! Yelled at Spock to get Jim out of here! Saw the First Officer grab Jim’s arm and yank him along with him as they ran towards the shuttle.
Leaving Reaper, Bones, John Grimm to deal with the monsters on his own.
~*~
The battle raged across Olduvai, with Bones fighting for his life, and the monsters fighting for the chance of freedom. He made it to the infirmary, locking the Nanowall behind him and looking around. The place had been thoroughly trashed, but there were still things here he could use.
Destroyer’s, Portman’s Mac’s and Goat’s guns were still here, scattered across the room, and he ended up choosing Mac’s thanks to the heft being so similar to his old one. He gripped the butt and curled his fingers around it, activating the weapon with a practised swipe of his thumb.
”RRTS Special Ops Clearance Verified,” the mechanical woman’s voice spoke, ”Handle ID: Reaper” .
All those years, centuries, of pushing who he had been away, but now Leonard McCoy had met John Grimm and he realised that ignoring everything he had been and everything he was had been foolish and dangerous.
He could still be Jim’s Bones, but be Sam’s John too. They were parts of the same man, he could be both.
Shouldering his weapon he looked around for anything else he could use. Nearby he saw a stand full of vials, and with a snarl he pocketed them all.
Goat’s armoured vest was still there, lying on the ground from where they had stripped it off him when they tried to save his life. John looked at the medical bed and his mind replayed the moment when he had lost his first patient.
~*~
”Let’s get this vest off him.” Reaper ordered, sending men of the squad running hither and thither with hand gestures. He was the one with the highest level of medical training, he was their medic and so right now Sarge stepped back and Reaper became the commanding officer. It was Destroyer who had undone buckles and straps and eased off the armoured vest, pouches of ammunition and personal medical effects.
“Got a weak pulse,” Duke informed him, glancing up at Reaper and then back down at Goat’s face as he measured the beats.
“Portman get me a line in here.” Reaper glanced up to make sure everything was being done to his satisfaction and then returned to working on the gashes in the man’s side.
“C’mon man.” Destroyer muttered, attaching an oxygen mask to the bleeding face of the injured marine.
“Kid, keep pressure on that wound,” John heard the tear of the portable sterilized med patch, which signalled that the Kid was following his commands. “How’s the pulse?” he shot at Duke, still measuring even though Portman’s line was broadcasting Goat’s heart beats over the heart monitor.
“I’m losing him.” Duke warned.
“Sam, get me a shot of adrenaline.” The woman whirled around, pleased to be doing something useful.
A few tense seconds later and the heart monitor flat lined. “Shit we lost the pulse.” Duke said just as Reaper lunged for the medical equipment nearby setting Goat up with patches.
“Okay let’s defib.” Reaper called, getting everyone moving again.
“C’mon man.” Destroyer repeated, watching Reaper anxiously. The buzz of the defib’s warming up was the only sound for a second before Reaper shouted ‘clear’ and slapped them down on Goat’s chest. The marine jerked almost violently, and the monitor beeped a heartbeat. Once, twice, three times.
Reaper didn’t even hear Sarge barking a question at Samantha he was so focused on his task.
Flat line again and another confirmation from Duke, “I’ve lost the pulse.”
“Shit.” Swore Reaper, “Okay, gonna defib...Clear!” and another shock was thumped into Goat’s body. One beep, two... “C’mon...” flat line once more. “No response.”
“We’re losing him.” Duke breathed, fear on his face.
“Sam, give me that adrenaline.” Reaper barked, not giving up and snatching it from her. He injected it into the pale, blood splattered chest, looking up at the heart monitor as it beeped once, twice, three times, “C’mon you son of a bitch.” Flat line, “Okay, going again...Clear!”
One beep and then a long flat line. Reaper couldn’t look at everyone’s faces, just leaned forward and turned off the monitor. He couldn’t stand hearing that noise, the noise of failure. “He’s gone,” he panted, voice choked from emotion.
Leaning in he tugged off Goat’s dog-tags, to be returned home as a sign of death identification. Then he whirled around, slamming a violent kick into the med station bin, sending it spinning across the floor.
~*~
As a doctor he had seen so much death since then, had so many people he couldn’t save but that had been the first, the first real medical one, and it had stayed with him, just one of the horrors he had endured on that day.
He turned away from the med bay, loaded and cocked his weapon and unlocked the nanowall startling the creatures on the other side and blasting them before they could react. Man, it was good to have a solid old gun in his hands. He felt more like a soldier, more like John Grimm, and less like Doctor McCoy playing hero.
It all came back to him, the checking around corners, and the scanning with his weapon. His phaser was tucked into its holster at his hip but he wouldn’t use it, not unless he had to.
Steadily he stalked the monsters through Olduvai, killing one after another until he was sure he had gotten all of the newly turned, and the scientist left behind.
But he still didn’t settle. He had caught a glimpse of the monster from before, the one who had taken the redshirted Ensign and had instantly known who exactly it was.
His heightened senses flicked, sensing all around until suddenly he paused. Something wasn’t right.
He could sense, a heart beating.
Normally it was a noise he always heard, and so had tuned it out, but these monsters, they didn’t beat with the same pitch as a human. This was a human heart beat.
And it was fast with fear.
Reaper turned around a corner and froze, feeling his own heart stop in his chest.
Jim, was on the ground, bleeding, propped up against a wall, his eyes met Reaper’s own horrified brown gaze and he groaned. “Bones.”
Standing over Jim was a huge monster, bigger than any of the ones who had been before, even the original Stahl. And across its upper back was emblazoned the words ‘Semper Fi.’
The monster turned, and bared its teeth at the horrified Doctor before it. “Hello Reaper.” Sarge snarled.
Part 1 | Part 3