A/N: Well, here it is, folks, the end of the story. There will be an M-rated one-shot follow up to this (teaser: one of the pair is a virgin!) but after I wrote this chapter I knew it was the last one. Thank you to everyone for following, reading, favoriting and most of all reviewing; it all gives life to us writers but that last one is like champagne in our blood.

Molly watched as Khan allowed himself to be manacled and led away. He didn't look back but she could feel his confidence, and a sense of affection she knew was entirely meant for her. She smiled to herself as she took a seat on one of the low benches, settling in to wait for whatever happened next.

Less than an hour later the doors to the brig slid open, and Khan was once again escorted inside. She'd felt the slight vibration in the deck that indicated that the engines had come back online, and the surge of triumph through the emotional bond she and Khan now shared, so she'd already known they'd been successful in repairing the damage. She rose to her feet as the guards escorting her soul mate lowered the plas-steel barrier keeping her imprisoned, waiting quietly until instructed to step out. Khan took her place, his arms raised so that the first guard – Cortez, Molly remembered, his name was Lt. David Cortez – could remove the manacles still clamped around his wrists when it happened: the first shocks of phaser blasts against the Enterprise rocked the ship, startling a cry from Molly's lips.

As soon as the attack began, Khan whirled into motion; using his manacles as a weapon, he quickly knocked both Cortez and the other guard – was her name Duvall? – into unconsciousness. Molly cried out again, this time in anger, but there was no time for her to protest as Khan sprang to her side. "I'm sorry," he said, sounding truly regretful. Not only that, but Molly felt his regret through their bond. Then she felt herself being swept up in a transporter beam, and everything went dark.

When she rematerialized, she found herself on the bridge of an unknown vessel; the Vengeance, she assumed once she recognized the startled-looking figure seated in the command chair. "Admiral Marcus," she said, trying to keep her voice steady even though she felt entirely off-kilter, hoping that Khan hadn't deliberately sent her into harm's way in spite of their bond. "I think it's only fair to warn you that…"

She fell silent, gaping a bit as the Admiral and the few other crewmen who'd been pointing rather alarming-looking phaser rifles at her were suddenly lit up by the glow transporter beams, vanishing from sight before she could figure out what she was going to say. The Admiral's expression was a mixture of outrage and alarm, and she could only hope that they were going to be deposited into the Enterprise brig rather than deep space. Although she understood her soul mate much better now than she had before their kiss, she still had no idea if his desire for revenge against this man would tempt him back to his more ruthless ways.

And what, exactly, she wondered were his plans for this ship? She suspected his reasons for depositing her here, reasons that were confirmed when Khan himself appeared, minus his manacles. He continued to be a blur of motion, dashing to the forward navigation console, shouting out a string of code, grinning triumphantly when he read the display.

The main viewscreen crackled into life, revealing the livid face of Molly's cousin. "Khan!" he bellowed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Khan paused in his actions to smirk up at the screen. "What I tried to do when my crew and I first left Earth three hundred years ago, Kirk; find a new home where we can live in peace. Now that I have control of this ship – did I mention it can be run by a crew of only a few, or even one? – and my people are safely transported to the cargo deck, we can continue that quest."

Jim's eyes darted over to take in the sight of Molly, who moved to stand next to Khan, and his lips twisted in a snarl. "Beam Ensign Hooper back to the Enterprise. Now!"

Khan, who had been in the act of turning away from the screen, looked down at the woman standing by his side. "Molly," he said softly, reaching up to cup her chin in one large hand, "it was an impulse, bringing you over here. That was never part of the plan. And it's your choice, if you wish to remain with your cousin, with Starfleet and the Federation, to face the coming war – and yes, with his actions today, Marcus has virtually guaranteed that war's inception."

"My other choice being to stay on this ship, to go with you? Leave the Federation behind forever?" Molly replied softly, her words a question and statement all at once.

Khan nodded, reaching out to mute the volume on the viewscreen as Kirk began to shout out his protests; this was a private moment between soul mates, with a momentous decision to be made in so short a span of time. Not days, not hours, barely even minutes before Molly had to make the choice she was being offered.

To stay with a man she barely knew – their soul bond aside – who was a murderer, however justified his actions had been in his own mind? An arrogant ruler in exile from another century, genetically altered to be superior to a mere human like herself? Or stay, resume the life she knew, serving Starfleet and a Federation that had grown so complacent that people like Admiral Marcus could easily work in secret to subvert everything those august organizations stood for?

She gazed up at Khan's eyes, then turned to face the viewscreen, reaching out to toggle the switch that would allow her to speak to her cousin. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," she said, wrapping one arm around Khan's waist and resting her hand on his chest. She felt the warmth of his arm encircling her, holding her close by his side as she said her farewells to the life she'd been born into. "Khan is my soul mate, and I've looked into his heart."

"He's a murderer," Jimmy shouted. Molly saw Commander Spock standing by her cousin's side, his face grave, but somehow thoughtful at the same time. He'd seen into her mind, just as she'd seen into Khan's; she wondered if he recognized from that temporary bond the depth of her resolve. "Khan, you need to stand down your weapons, lower your shields, and surrender yourself to us. Considering the Admiral's coercion of you, I'm sure a case can be made…"

"When everyone judging me will believe as you do, that I'm a murderer and worse?" Khan said, cutting him with a bitter laugh. "No, Kirk, I refuse to subject either myself or any of my family to the hypocrisy of your Federation a minute longer. Your engines will resume power shortly," he added, and Molly realized with a start that, although he'd helped fix the Admiral's sabotage, apparently he'd performed some of his own as well. "You'll be able to limp back home, but following me – us," he corrected himself, giving Molly a fond smile, "will be impossible. I suggest you save your energy for interrogating the prisoners I've deposited in your brig. Oh, and Kirk, don't bother following us. This ship," he patted the console fondly, "is built to outrun and outgun anything you'd care to send after us. And I think you'll find yourself a bit too busy with your upcoming war to find time chasing after a pointless vendetta."

Spock leaned close to Jimmy and whispered something in his ear that the mics weren't designed to pick up. Her cousin glared at his second-in-command, then turned sullenly to face them again. "Molly," he said, his voice pleading, taut with restrained emotion, "please don't do this. You don't need to be with your soul mate even after bonding, you know it's been proven you can live a perfectly healthy life without being in close proximity…"

"I've made my choice, Captain Kirk," Molly said, making the conscious choice to return to formality. To leave him behind would hurt, so very much, but she knew in her heart that to leave Khan would eventually kill her. Not because of the lack of proximity, but because she would spend the rest of her life regretting that decision. "Good-bye. Tell Sam and Aunt Winona I love them." She looked at Commander Spock. "Commander, I hereby tender my resignation as a serving member of Starfleet," she said formally. "Please note it in your logs, that I do so freely and while under no duress."

"So noted," the half-Vulcan replied, tilting his head in acknowledgement. "Live long and prosper, Miss Hooper."

"Thank you," she said, and then Khan cut communications, just as Jimmy began to utter another futile protest. Molly watched in silence as Khan punched in the coordinates for their unknown destination, stepping aside so as not to hinder his rapid movements as he flitted from console to console. When she felt the warp engines hum into life, she knew that the irrevocable moment had come; she'd chosen a life in exile with this man, and now would face the consequences of that decision, for good or ill.

"For better, for worse," she murmured to herself, but of course Khan's superior hearing picked up every word. He strode to her side after issuing one last command to the main computer, taking her hands gently in his.

"From this forward, till death do us part," he said, then leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

"Till death," Molly agreed softly as the kiss ended. "But until then, I imagine we'll have a helluva life."

His answering laughter was a welcome sound as they sped into the darkness between the stars.