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Chapter Text

If Julian closed his eyes, he could still see himself in his original Starfleet uniform, so eager to arrive on Deep Space Nine, so keen to practice Frontier medicine and bring hope to the hopeless; by the absent Prophets but he had been naive. This uniform was almost always stained with others' blood; every day was a vast number of surgeries, trying to patch people up so they could go back on the battlefield and hopefully kill more Jem’Hadar, Breen, or Cardassians before they were damaged beyond Julian’s ability to repair. As horrible as it was to think of himself in the weapons repair business, it was easier to face than the nightmares he had every night, where he saw the dead faces of his friends night after night.

First was Miles and his family - he had taken Keiko, Molly, and little Kirayoshi out on a runabout, hoping to escape the horrors of the war for a few hours on a scenic trip to Bajor, only for the ship to have barely left the station before it blew up. There had been no time to beam them out as they were literally gone in a flash, but many assured the crew that, just as there had been no time to save them, the family likely never knew what hit them; Julian and the others tried to take comfort in that.

Then, Jadzia had been killed by Dukat and the damage to her body had been too severe for even Julian’s cursed enhanced abilities to save her.

Sisko and Kira had been assassinated when they were on their way to a secret war tacticians meeting; Dukat had been particularly vile in his gloating over that victory, mentioning how sorry he had been that he was unable to fuck Kira first, as he had her mother as he had always wanted to compare the two. Jake had taken his father’s death badly and was sent back to earth to live with his grandfather, who likewise took the death of his son hard.

Worf and the new Dax host, Ezri, who had become a fast friend of Julian’s, were killed by the Breen when the pair had hoped to gain some foothold against the Cardassians. Julian and the others had done their best to mimic the Klingon cry, letting Kahless, Jadzia, and Sto’Vo’Kor that two more warriors were coming, and Jadzia was about to be reunited with her husband.

He had been unable to cure Odo and the Founders had refused to help a traitor, so the man had lost all cohesion and died (Julian privately hoped that, if Sto’Vo’Kor was the resting place of warriors, and his friends, Odo joined them there).

Quark was already upset over the loss of Nog’s leg and, when faced with the loss of his dear ‘frenemy’, the Ferengi had loaded a runabout with explosives and destroyed a Ketrecel-White facility, taking out a large number of Jem’Hadar soldiers with it. All the while, the man had insisted it was just a supply mission gone wrong, and not a revenge mission for his nephew and oldest friend.

The last one to go had been Garak; the man had called in his last favours to sneak onto Dukat’s ship and exact revenge for Ziyal’s murder (no one had been able to believe it when the man had murdered his own daughter because she was a ‘traitor’ to him). Julian had begged him not to go, full-on crying that Garak was his last friend left, that he loved him even though Garak had loved Ziyal, and couldn’t lose the last member of his family. Garak had gently cradled Julian’s cheek and told him that he was sorry, but taking out Dukat was not only a personal vendetta, but it was what Cardassia needed to be free of the Dominion, and it would keep Julian safe to take the man out. Julian might have been ashamed for how he cried but he didn’t care as he tried to convince Garak to find another way as Julian had no one else; even Kukalaka had been destroyed when an attack on the station had resulted in a fire in his quarters, destroying everything, including his oldest friend. Garak had kissed Julian before using a hypospray to knock him out, and by the time the other had awoken, Garak was gone, and so were Dukat, Damar, and the last clone of Weyoun (he imagined Garak had taken extra joy in taking that bastard out). Julian was alone now.

That all led to here; Starfleet had been in another battle with the Founders and had called the Defiant to come help them - Julian had been the last one capable of flying the Defiant so Commander Akhol Th’zollil, his new Commanding Officer (still fresh from the academy but, with so many being wiped out, Starfleet was promoting as many to commander and captain ranks as they could - even he was now a Lieutenant Commander, despite only having been promoted a year ago) had ordered Julian to take the ship out. They had fought in such a way that, Julian would like to think, even Worf, Kira, and Sisko would have been proud of, but it amounted to very little as most of the crew who had been on board with him were dead or dying, and he was fairly certain he was dying as well, with how that piece of shrapnel was ‘poking’ his kidney and his leg, in particular his left thigh, was bleeding badly. Admiral Ross was calling a retreat, but Julian ignored the bastard as he read the Defiant’s weapons and shields were gone, and they were leaking radiation from the warp core. Deciding to go out in Klingon fashion, he had powered up the warp core to warp nine-point-seven, aimed for the Founder’s ship, and sent a simple message to Admiral Ross and General Martok, his last friend from their time in that damned camp - Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam, Today was a Good Day to Die.

Ross had tried to order him to stand down while Martok told him he would send the call to Sto’Vo’Kor, letting his friends know that he was coming to join them. Julian had set the autopilot, set a course for where the engine of the Founder’s ship was located, and murmured Captain Picard’s (by the Prophets’, but if any was going to survive the war, he had thought the Enterprise would have; they had perished after Worf, so at least the warrior had been spared that) favourite expression,

“Engage.” The Defiant had gone like a bat out of hell, straight to the heart of the Founder’s ship but, instead of an explosion like he was expecting, his ship was suddenly covered in some strange, dark purple and bright pink light that seeped into the ship and covered him in a strange warmth, like one of his rare hot bubble baths he would sometimes take after a long shift before he switched to efficient sonics. He heard those who were dying sigh as the light touched them and knew that their suffering was over, and he hoped to join them soon, but those thoughts were interrupted when the light went away and he looked out his viewport to see… Deep Space Nine? That wasn’t possible as he was over two days away from the station and the Defiant had been facing the wrong direction when he went into warp. He distantly heard the sound that he was being hailed, but he found he had no desire to answer it as the warmth remained and all he wanted was to finally join his friends. Just before he passed out, he felt a tractor beam lock onto the ship and tow it closer to the station, and he truly hoped Commander Th’zollil would just let him ‘sleep’.

Here I come, guys. Here I come, Garak.

Chapter Text

Julian could hear voices around him and wondered if he was lucky or unlucky, as his body was no longer registering the pain of his kidney being punctured, the shattered wrist when the Jem’Hadar ship had fired on them and he had been thrown over a consul, or the head wound he had similarly received. He opened his eyes and groaned as he saw the roof of his infirmary; either he was in his mind again, like after the Lethean attack, or he had failed in his ‘noble sacrifice’ mission, though those thoughts left his mind when a hated face came into his field of vision and asked,

“Are you in any pain, Julian? We already have you on pain killers but if you are still feeling such discomfort-”

“Dukat, you bastard!” Julian tried to lunge at the treacherous bastard, but Dukat was powerful even for a Cardassian and grabbed Julian’s wrists before he could attempt to wring the bastard’s neck. He wanted to ask how the bastard was still alive after Garak had given his own life to kill him, but there was another voice from the past behind him.

“Well, it would appear that wherever he’s from, his universe does not have a pleasant version of you, Skrain.”

“Yes, thank you, Corat; now would you mind doing your job and helping me with him before he hurts someone? Most likely himself or me?” Julian felt a hypo on his neck and growled as he felt his limbs become dead weight and he was eased back onto the biobed. As he laid back, he saw that, yes, the other who had held him back and drugged him, was Glinn Damar, even though he had died with Garak, Dukat, and Weyoun.

“Easy, young one; it’s obvious you’re not from around here, but Dukat and I aren’t your enemies.” Damar tried to soothe while they moved Julian into a more comfortable position. Damar’s words caused Julian to pause before he asked,

“I’ve been to the Mirror Universe before and it didn’t feel or look like this, so I’m guessing this is supposed to be another universe instead of the Dominion putting me in some kind of simulation?” The two men frowned as they glanced at each other before the little light went on and Dukat asked,

“The Dominion? You mean the Founders? You don’t have to worry about them, Julian; they are gone and have decided to stay in the Gamma Quadrant.” Julian was more than a little confused when Dukat referred to him as Julian but was drawn out of his thoughts when a painfully familiar voice called out,

“Dukat, the Captain is getting anxious to know who your mysterious patient from that Defiant copycat is-” A startled gasp caused Julian to turn around as much as he could and, somehow, he was looking at Colonel Kira Nerys, alive again.

“Nerys?” She was looking at Julian as though he was a ghost from the past, but her name from his lips seemed to shake her awake as she all but slammed her hand on her comm badge and ordered,

“Major Kira to all commanding officers, please report to the infirmary immediately; Dukat’s patient is awake and… and you’ll only believe this if you see it.” Julian was trying to find his voice to ask… something, but couldn’t think of a thing to say; was this another illusion of the Dominion’s? He had no viable information and Garak, before he died, had taught him a few tricks for seeing through such illusions, none of which he could sense here and now. Or was it truly another universe? Ever since Kirk’s report about the mirror universe, thousands of scientists have wondered if, maybe, there were other alternate universes as well, if every choice we made in the Prime universe (which might have been his or just another variation) was countered by an alternate where the opposite choice was taken; turning left instead of right. Some theorized that the reason they kept breaching the dark mirror universe was because Kirk’s first foray during the ion storm weakened the barrier between the two, and that same weakness existed in and around the wormhole, hence why they had been visited so often. He was brought out of his musings when he heard more gasps and he felt himself tear up when he saw Sisko, Jadzia, Worf, Miles, Ezri (perhaps she had a different symbiote if this was real? Certainly lowered the chance of this being a Dominion simulation; why bring both Jadzia and Ezri back from the dead?), and he let out a little sob when he saw Garak in his red and dark bronze outfit that had always been one of his favourites. He could hardly believe what he was seeing and, judging by their expressions, they could hardly believe it either.

“The constable told us there was a strange survivor on the duplicate Defiant, doctor, but I could never dream of this circumstance.” Julian went to answer, only for Dukat to answer.

“I know, and I’m sorry for not telling you, but when Odo-”

“Odo is alive too?” Julian was frankly flabbergasted at the idea of Dukat being a doctor, but the thought of another friend being alive and (hopefully) well took precedence. Dukat didn’t even look annoyed as he turned to Julian, smiled at him, and answered,

“Yes, and being a general pain in the tail to anyone and everyone who doesn’t have a spotless record going back to kindergarten.” At such an odd comment, Julian looked down and saw that Dukat was honest; he, Damar, and Garak all had long, scaly tails that were either wrapped around their waists or lightly swaying in the air. Even more interesting was that the tails were all different; Dukat’s was thinner than the other two, but also very long (the others looped once while his looped twice) and looked like it could be used like a whip in a pinch, with the closest comparison he could think of was the tail of a black mamba (how appropriate). Damar’s was much thicker, a bit shorter, had a single raised ridge on it as opposed to Dukat’s sleek tail, and looked like it packed a wallop when he swung it at someone - the general appearance of it reminded Julian of a komodo dragon’s. Finally, there was Garak’s, with his tail being the shortest, but it also looked armoured, very similar to an alligator’s - that tail would definitely leave a mark if used in a fight.

“I take it Cardassians don’t have tails in your universe?” Garak asked and Julian realized that he had been staring at their tails, which had him blush as he mumbled,

“Sorry.” He flinched as Dukat laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and replied,

“It’s no problem; many stare at our tails when first meeting a Cardassian. Now, as I was saying, first we wanted to make sure this was Julian and not an attempt by the Founders to have another go at our quadrant. Then, once we determined he was human, we had to stabilize him as he had lost a lot of blood and his kidney was damaged; I hope you don’t mind but we replaced it with an artificial one as there was just too much damage.”

“We appear to be cluttering up the infirmary with all of us here; is… is Julian stable enough for him to be moved somewhere else? Say, the wardroom room?” Sisko looked as though it was physically painful to call Julian by his name, leading him to wonder what had happened to his obvious counterpart.

“Yes, but he will need someone to carry him as we had to give him a powerful muscle relaxant and I would advise against the transport right now as he’s slightly anemic, and his heart rate isn’t very steady, glucose, electrolytes, blood pressure, almost everything is in the tank; if we transport him, he might pass out or be violently ill. Do you agree, Julian?” Dukat asked as he presented a padd with Julian’s vitals, not that he needed a visual aid for how lousy he felt. Miles finally spoke as he asked,

“Why are you asking him?” Was Julian not a doctor in this universe?

“When we found him, he was wearing a Starfleet-esque uniform with a Science and Medical teal shirt underneath; unless the colours are different in his universe?” Dukat asked Julian the second part, but Julian replied,

“No, I’m a doctor in my universe.” Julian also took the chance to look at the others and realized they were still wearing the original uniforms that he and his crew had initially worn when they were first assigned to Deep Space Nine, instead of the grey ones Starfleet had switched over to while he was in the internment camp. Even Dukat and Damar were wearing different uniforms; the chest plate was the standard Cardassian uniform he had seen multiple times by now, but instead of silver accents around the neck and shoulders, those same accents were blue and the trousers didn’t look to be the same Andorian cotton (or whatever they were; Garak was the tailor after all), but looked to be some kind of fusion of silk and leather, flexible and durable.

“You managed to become a doctor in your universe? And join Starfleet?” Jadzia asked, looking absolutely thrilled at such an idea, and Julian felt his heartbreak at an expression he hadn’t seen for over a year, and he could only nod in response.

“Let’s not inundate the doctor with questions until he’s more comfortable, Old Man.” Julian couldn’t contain the flinch at the phrase he hadn’t heard Sisko say for almost four months before he was killed. A strange look entered all their eyes when they saw him flinch, but Julian missed it as his attention was drawn away.

“Nurse Jabara is looking for some clothes for you, Julian, because, frankly, I think your uniform is about ready to fall apart, and that’s if it survives the wash to get all the blood out.” Damar told Julian, only for Garak to reappear (when did he vanish?) and present Julian with a set of clothes, no doubt from his shop.

“I have seen what Starfleet gives to its guests who show up without attire, my dear, and I don’t think there is a version of you out there that would enjoy wearing such drab atrocities.” The others rolled their eyes but Julian could only smile as he could see so much of his Garak in this fellow; tail or no tail.

“Um, I can’t move my arms right now…” Julian murmured, which led to the three Cardassians helping him as they first slid the trousers up his legs under the gown, and then pulled the gown over his head, which had someone gasping as they saw his ‘battle scars’ that he had chosen not to heal, before the shirt was pulled over his shoulders, revealed to be a button up, and there was something unique about the buttons but he couldn’t see it as Garak quickly buttoned it up. The colour was a rich blue that Julian had never worn before, with some beautiful copper stitching as accents around the edges.

“Now, any volunteers to help him move around? I’m afraid he doesn’t have a good relationship with my counterpart as he tried to strangle me as soon as he saw me, so it would be a bad idea for me to carry him.” Dukat pointed out.

“I will carry him/I’ll carry Julian/I will carry the alternate doctor.” Julian was stunned as Garak, Miles, and Worf all spoke up at the same time.

“Forget it, Garak; I’m carrying Julian!” Miles stated, only for Garak to scoff and state,

“Oh, please, Chief, you only just recovered from dislocating your shoulder from your kayaking holoprogram; surely you don’t want to throw it again?”

“I am stronger than either of you, I would be able to carry him to the wardroom room with no difficulties.” Worf insisted, and Julian saw Sisko facepalm while Jadzia and Kira both tried to smother their laughter. Julian found himself glancing at Dukat again and, when the man noticed, he exaggeratedly rolled his eyes at their antics in a way Dukat never would have, as though it were an old argument. As he thought about just how different this Dukat was acting to his own, Julian yelped as he was suddenly picked up, and turned to see that Damar, eager to move things along, had decided that he would carry Julian.

“Sorry, doctor, but those three will argue for hours if allowed. Now, shall we go?” Julian was a soldier now, but he could privately admit he squeaked as he managed to grab Damar’s shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I have a good grip; I won’t drop you.” The large group then left the infirmary, and Julian almost broke down crying as he saw the promenade just as it was when they had finished cleaning up after the Cardassians had left. Teaming with life, people going about their business, laughing and worrying over trivial things, he could even hear Quark trying to finagle some kind of deal for as much Latinum as he could. It took a lot of willpower not to bury his face in Damar’s chest plate as he looked around, not noticing the others glancing at him, wondering how bad his universe was, combined with his scarred body, and Damar’s words about his uniform being soaked with blood that such an everyday sight moved him so much.

Something Julian managed to notice beyond his melancholy (by the Prophets, was that Vilix’Pran with his hatchlings?! And that looked like Simon Tarses, who had just gotten his doctor’s degree when he was killed!), was an alien species he had never seen before. They looked like they were humans, but they had animal appendages as well; some had animal ears like bats or dogs, some possessed tails like the Cardassians while some had different animals (did that person have a shark tail?!), some possessed wings from various animals, and a couple possessed all three. As he watched the people on the promenade, he saw some stop and stare at him in return, as though the disbelief was mutual; what had happened to his counterpart? Jadzia had known him but was shocked to see him a doctor and in Starfleet, but Kira had looked like she had seen a ghost when she saw him.

Soon, all the staring was over as they entered the lift and went to the wardroom room. Julian was wondering where he would sit since it seemed that Dukat was the Chief Medical Officer (Prophets, but that thought boggled the mind as he had seemed so self-serving that the idea of any version of Dukat being a healer seemed as likely as Kai Winn embracing the fact Sisko was the Emissary), when Garak and Miles took their seats, leaving a spot between them, and Damar put him there. Garak and Miles immediately started fussing, making sure he was comfortable and seated properly until Damar and Dukat waved them off. Julian was surprised by the fuss, but even more so when Ezri put a glass of sahlab with a small dish of honey in front of him and he could smell the cinnamon, pistachios, orchids, and rose water coming from it and his stomach growled at it.

“I realize not every version of you is the same in your likes and dislikes, but this was our Julian’s favourite drink when he was overwhelmed, so in case you like it too, I thought you might enjoy a glass right now. Our Julian also liked his drinks super sweet, so I added the honey on the side so you can sweeten it to your liking.” Jadzia put her hand on Ezri’s shoulder and said,

“Our version of you and Ezri here became fast friends, even though you only knew each other for a little over a year before…” A look of pain flashed through Jadzia’s eyes, so Julian replied,

“My version of Ezri and I were friends as well, and sahlab is a favourite of mine, and I do like it very sweet, though our replicators could never quite get it right, so I stuck with Tarkalean tea.” Ezri smiled and then took her seat on the left side of Colonel Kira, while Jadzia sat on her right, and Worf sat next to her. Julian took a sip of his sahlab as Sisko appeared to be gathering his thoughts, and admitted it was very good, though he blushed when Garak handed him a handkerchief and motioned to his upper lip - a gesture that had seemed automatic. After he added more honey, Sisko asked him,

“I’m afraid there’s no delicate way to ask this doctor, but I must ask you where you come from, and are you an augment?” Julian almost dropped his drink at Sisko’s question, but Miles moved quickly to steady him. Julian cleared his throat and replied,

“To answer your second question first, yes, I am an augment.”

“I figured; our Julian was an augment too, and he was killed two years ago by an anti-augment movement - they hated that DS9 was a spot where they could roam without their owners constantly watching them or locking them in their quarters.”

“Owners?” Julian asked, confused and more than a little worried.

“Perhaps I should explain?” Kira asked, to which Julian nodded and pleaded,

“Please, Colonel.” Kira’s eyebrows rose, as did a few others as Kira corrected,

“I’m only a major here, Julian, but don’t worry about it. Now, I don’t know the laws of your universe, but here, the process for creating augments was corrupted since over 60% of Adam Soongh’s work was completely destroyed, so new augments were given different treatments that resulted in them developing animal features.”

“Those people I saw on the promenade! They were augments?! All of them?!” Julian asked, stunned as he had seen over a dozen people with those appendages (some he had known in his universe! There were other augments on the station?), and began to have a bad feeling about those collars and leashes.

“Yes; depending on how young they were when they were augmented, the ears/tails/wings would develop around fifteen or so, and everyone was hoping their child would be the 1/10 who wouldn’t present, but they usually did.” Julian found it ironic that the age he found out what his parents had done to him, was the age at which such an obvious trait developed. He took another sip before asking,

“Uh, did I… I mean, the alternate version of me, did he…?” Sisko was the one who answered with a soft smile,

“Our Julian was unique in that he developed all three; he had the most adorable Bengal cat ears and tail, along with soft bird wings that looked like a dove’s.” Everyone smiled as they remembered how catlike their Julian could be at times before Kira continued,

“Well, with such obvious indicators, it quickly became obvious how many were being augmented, and it then came to light that their parents were the ones who were augmenting their children because they were exhibiting developmental problems, such as your autism and others. Many Federation races felt it was wrong that they should be imprisoned when their parents were the ones forcing it on them so they came up with an alternative; when an augment was discovered, they were collared and trained to be pets that would be bought by others.”

“That’s supposed to be an improvement?! Sexual slavery?!” Julian asked as he tried to fight the muscle relaxant he was given (damn but he hated those things; his limbs felt like he was on pins and needles as they ‘woke up’) and stand up in outrage, but the Miles and Garak look-alikes gently held his shoulders down, keeping him pinned to the seat.

“Not everyone engages in sex with their augment and abuse isn’t tolerated since they worry the augments would rebel. Many of the earlier augments found that their humanity was slipping away, and they were recessing to animal-like behaviour; when your parents -” Julian noted, through his anger, that the mention of his parents, even an alternate version of them, seemed to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths; even Dukat looked disgusted at the thought of them - bizarre. “-tried their luck with you, improvements had been made to try and prevent the animal developments while also stopping the mental degradation. You, that is to say, your counterpart, were lucky in that your mind accepted the new mental pathways and, after you turned fifteen, your mind did not degrade but, when you sprouted your wings and tail, you knew what was awaiting you, so you ran, especially since Starfleet retained the ban on augments joining either Starfleet or fields like medicine. He learned all he could from medical texts and then he got lucky in finding a smuggler’s ship whose doctor was developing dementia, and they offered to train him and keep him safe from Starfleet. He learned a lot from the doctor before his mind went, and the spots where the crew would refuel and have R&R offered more chances to learn medicine and surgery.

Then, one day, that luck took a turn as his ship took heavy damage from some rival smugglers, and the closest station to get repairs done was here, on DS9; we already allowed the augments a bit more room to move around, as well as places on the promenade, to leave your augments so they could interact with others, but those with criminal records were forbidden from having an augment. His former crew had a hidden, hollow spot behind a bulkhead where they would hide him during times like these. What they didn’t know was that there was a radiation leak and, while trying to fix it, your counterpart was found and there was naturally nowhere to run, so he was taken into custody. It was also discovered that the crew was transporting large amounts of bio-mimetic gel, a highly controlled substance here, so they were arrested but it was proven that Julian didn’t know of it.” Kira stopped to take a drink, so Jadzia took over,

“Needless to say, he was quite frightened since all he had wanted to do was practice medicine and heal people, but now he was to be trained as a pet; not an easy task given he was twenty-eight and very stubborn. We informed Starfleet and they told us they were sending a training team to pick you, er, him, up and begin his training, and he was to be kept under guard until then. I had been the first to talk to him and I determined that, though he was a flirt, it would be alright for him to come out of the cells and join us on our duties, though our CMO at the time, Dr. Nathan Winters, refused to let you into the infirmary. Sorry, him.” Those who knew this Jadzia knew the reason she kept screwing up and so said nothing, and Julian imagined keeping pronouns correct in these circumstances was difficult, though he was embarrassed to think he had embarrassed himself in front of Jadzia in two different universes.

“He was chatty and had a thirst for knowledge, but also very sweet; one day, I left him with my wife and daughter and Keiko needed to run and get something, can’t remember what now, but when she came back, Julian was telling Molly some kind of story and acting it out with her - Molly was very shy around strangers, but Julian had her laughing and jumping around like she had known him forever. Then, the training team came, and right off the bat there was tension as the lead trainer struck Julian when he went to shake hands, saying that all pets were to greet their owners on their knees, as if Julian should have known that. The bastard then put a training collar on him; it was black, a heavy material but wiry with something like copper, a real ugly thing. Things like this went on for three days before the Captain, back then Commander, called Starfleet and said the whole thing just wasn’t right as they were treating Julian like he was deliberately defying his training, but he had never been trained before and so he didn’t know the rules. He was also losing weight he couldn’t afford to lose because they weren’t feeding him enough and wouldn’t until he behaved. 

Starfleet said the only other option was for us to train Julian, and maybe he would become the staff’s pet; a few of us, especially me, had had animal pets in the past, but you were someone who, apart from a few extra features, was a human, so this was hardly ideal, but it was the only option. The sight of him slowly starving to death and blood on his wings told us we could hardly do a worse job, and the idea was sold during a freak asteroid shower that banged us up pretty bad; we were on red alert and the sound hurt his ears and scared him so badly, he ran, ignoring his orders to stop, and the warning shocks from the collar in the process. He ran to the quietest spot; Garak’s shop, who looked after him until the end of the storm and red alert.” Julian felt a lump in his throat as Miles talked about Keiko and Molly, but swallowed past it as he asked,

“Shocks?” The crew was all uncomfortable now, but Kira carried on,

“It was the key to the training regimen; when augments are good, the collar releases a wave of endorphins to reward the system, and when they’re bad, they receive an electrical shock to discourage them.” Julian swallowed again and asked,

“I… see. Do you know how powerful the shocks were?” Again, the uncomfortable looks until Miles said,

“Yes; after we took over his training, we agreed to rotate him as we had, and I’m afraid I’m the one who caused it. He had learned about some new kind of racket that was being developed for tennis or something, and the computers were being especially annoying that day, and he just kept talking about this damn racket so I told him to be quiet and the collar registered my tone of voice as a reprimand and shocked him. Julian was quiet for a week after that, and I mean quiet; he wouldn’t tell us when he was hungry, what he wanted to eat, he wouldn’t talk to Molly and tell her any more stories, hell, the only way we knew he needed the bathroom was when he started squirming! Garak, who had become friends with Julian while he comforted him during the asteroid shower, got together with Jake Sisko, I don’t know if he exists in your universe, who was always gentle with him, and they figured out the shocks were a lot more painful than the trainers told us. We took the collar off and saw Julian’s neck was just raw and swollen because the inside of the collar was similar to rawhide, and Julian had sensitive skin; that alone was bad, but then the Commander put the collar on himself and I repeated the command in the same tone of voice. He described it as a terrible shock that ran up and down his body; the fact that Julian could move at all with those shocks racing through his body was a testament to his strength. We then traded the bulky collar for a slimmer one that looked like a normal pet collar, though Garak lined it with Rigellian silk to prevent chafing. We did a bit of tampering with the collar and reduced the power of the shocks, as well as for a few other augments who had no history of acting up or anything violent.”

“And, did any of you…?” The crew could see this bothered Julian but knew it best to be truthful.

“All of us, though Dr. Dukat and Damar came later, almost two years later, I think?” The latter was directed to the other two Cardassians, who nodded. Julian was disturbed by the idea a version of him had been with versions of his friends in a sexual sense but asked,

“And, how did he die?”

“As I said, the station was a place where augments were given a bit more freedom, and some didn’t like that; we were accused of being sympathisers and, two years ago, an anti-augment group attached a powerful bomb to our engines. We were able to remove it from the engines, but none of us were familiar with the design so there was no way to diffuse it, and the augments had no time to come up with a solution beyond putting it in a runabout and setting a course for some nearby dead planet. Julian managed to get it to the Rio Grande but, after it was decoupled from the station, we couldn’t beam him out; the bomb was emitting a tachyon field that scrambled the transporters, and we couldn’t beam him to safety. Julian expressed his… regrets, told us he loved us, and flew the Rio Grande towards Thazon II, a dead planet in this sector. The ship blew up before he could reach it, but all the station felt were minor shockwaves, and Bajor experienced some freak weather.” Julian noted that even Worf looked pained at this reminiscing, and could quietly admit it eased his indignation a bit as he realized everyone in this room, even Dukat and Damar, had treated his counterpart as more than a treasured pet who only existed to serve his masters.

“Those are battle scars littering your body, doctor; what has been happening in your universe?” Worf asked, trying to bring his crew out of their thoughts, though he doubted it would be any lighter as he knew he was right; this Julian Bashir hadn’t just been in bar fights but had seen war, as was confirmed by his eyes.

“I didn’t know I had been augmented until I was fifteen; all I remembered was that I went into a hospital at age six and then, boom, the world made sense. After that, I didn’t understand why my parents, initially so eager for me to play sports, suddenly didn’t want me to play team sports, and instead signed me up for individual sports like tennis and fencing. Then, at fifteen, my aunt Zara, who had always doted on me, was on her deathbed and told me the truth, saying I deserved to know it as she had loved me despite being a disappointment to my parents. From there, I managed to hide my augmentations until I had been at DS9 for just over five years; then a Dr. Zimmerman-” Julian was cut off when Worf growled and the three Cardassians hissed. Upon seeing his confusion, Ezri told him,

“Their reaction is warranted; Zimmerman was the leader of the anti-augment faction that got onto the station and planted the bomb that killed you! He even boasted about how his group had taken a 'freak' out, making more room for naturals like him and his group!” Julian was stunned to hear the man was responsible for an alternate version of his death, but decided to carry on as he needed to focus at the moment.

“An, anyway, he wanted to use me as the model for the LMH and, behind my back, invited my parents to the station. My father was his usual boisterous self and insisted on calling me ‘Jules’ even though I had told him since I was fifteen that Jules was dead and my name was Julian. We had a big argument over dinner and, the next day, they went to the infirmary to talk to ‘me’ about the enhancements, stating they had done them for my own good, only to find out the ‘me’ they were talking to was the LMH, with Zimmerman and my Chief O’Brien in the room; my secret was revealed.” Julian couldn’t help the small, almost sardonic smile that popped up when the entire crew, even Dukat and Damar, facepalmed at his parents' stupidity. “That was not a good year for me as I had also been replaced by a Changeling who hoped to destroy Bajor’s sun; I was missing for five weeks, and we were only discovered thanks to Enabran Tain sending out a message that my Garak picked up. No one ever noticed, and then the Zimmerman incident occurred.” Julian noted Garak froze at the mention of his father, but Ezri’s comment drew his attention.

“No one noticed? For five weeks?”

“No, though an associate did remark they should have; seeing as how the Changeling was easier to get along with.” He heard them all take in a sharp breath at that and look very annoyed; Damar looked like he wanted to either hurt someone or hold Julian close to him and protect him, and Dukat looked quite similar. Not revealing O’Brien was the one who said it (no need to potentially get this one in trouble for something his alternate did), Julian continued,

“The reveal of the Changeling happened the same time as a betrayal; until then, Gul Dukat, the former Prefect of Terok Nor, had been something of an ally to us, with his second in command, Glinn Damar, only for us to find out he had been in talks with the Dominion and made Cardassia allies of the Dominion. After my reveal, in which my father went to prison for two years and I was allowed to remain in Starfleet as well as retain my licence, the year, and the war, just went downhill in a spectacular fashion; we lost the station in a joint attack by the Dominion and Cardassia, retook the station but Tora Ziyal was murdered by her father, Dukat, for doing what she could to help the rebellion, then-” Julian took a breath as he remembered his first big loss, and felt Garak gently grasp his hand and Miles gripped his other arm in support,

“Then, O’Brien and his family were blown up in a booby-trapped runabout while they were flying down to Bajor for the day to forget the war for a while, Dukat murdered Jadzia Dax and the Dax symbiote was given to Ezri, who joined us a few months later as a counselor, though Captain Sisko and Colonel Kira were killed about a month after Ezri joined us. Ezri and I became fast friends but she and Worf were chosen for a mission to try and cripple Cardassia, only to be captured and executed by the Breen, Odo developed a disease that threatened his cohesion and I couldn’t fix it, so he died, then Quark in a ‘failed supply run’ that he refused to admit was revenge for Odo, and finally… Garak. He managed to get aboard Dukat’s ship and took them all out in revenge for Ziyal, who he had been in a relationship with before her death. Then, during a battle where the Defiant had been called into duty, I was the only pilot left who could handle her as she had too much fire-power for a level-three pilot, so I had been sent out as both pilot and the highest-ranked officer as I had just been made a Lieutenant-Commander for no reason other than they were running low on commanders and I had seniority for what it was worth.

Admiral Ross called a retreat but my crew was mostly dead or dying and our warp core was leaking radiation like mad; we would never make it back to DS9 or any other station in the area that wasn’t controlled by the Dominion. So I laid in a course for where I knew the engine of the Founder’s ship was, set it to warp nine-point-seven, and set about ramming the bitch, only for the ship to be covered in some strange light, and I wound up here, which is either another universe or one fucked-up Dominion simulation. Though the latter seems unlikely, given the story you gave me is so bizarre the Founder’s would have little use for it, and even if it was, why resurrect both Jadzia and Ezri? They were both my friends but the symbiote influences personality and can-” Julian was cut off as he suddenly found Ezri half in his lap and currently hugging the stuffing out of him as she buried her face into his shoulder.

“I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a hard time in your universe but I hope you will take comfort in the fact that the Dominion War is already over here; for us, it was Dr. Winters who was replaced for two weeks, but he never got to complete his mission because your counterpart exposed him. He had been ours for three years, with Dukat and Damar occasionally stopping by and playing with him as he seemed to have quite the… affinity for Cardassians, -”

“They adored him, you mean.” Jadzia cut in and almost everyone chuckled as the trio of Cardassians looked unashamed at such a comment. Sisko continued as if the interruption never happened,

“- and did his best to avoid the infirmary since Dr. Winters made no secret of his dislike for augments. That day, however, Julian and O’Brien had been kayaking in the holosuites when the Chief badly hurt his leg; Julian took him to the infirmary, only to start growling as ‘Dr. Winters’ got closer - our Julian was always happy to move around the station, and only acted with respect or demurely around the doctor, so this was very odd behaviour. Turns out, Julian’s enhanced senses allowed him to smell this Dr. Winters wasn’t Dr. Winters, and we were able to apprehend him, as well as learn he had taken tissue samples from most of the augments on the station in the hopes of further improving the Jem’Hadar to be even stronger. The other augments had been threatened into silence since Dr. Winters could forge papers that their mental state was deteriorating into paranoia and violence, which would have them taken away from the families that had adopted them and would leave black marks on their records; the Changeling never got the chance to threaten Julian because he took care of his own injuries with how Winters treated him.”

“As for ‘my betrayal’, my father was disheartened by my interest in medicine over the military, and so he forced me into it, but held back any advancements for a long time. To that end, it was my cousin, Gul Macet, who was the Prefect of Bajor during the occupation, and I eventually wound up on my old friend Damar’s ship, where I managed to attain the rank of Glinn while he was the Gul. Macet and Damar were in talks with the Dominion over Cardassia joining their empire to become strong again, but Damar’s part was all a ruse to expose those who would violate the State by joining our enemies and turning Cardassian soldiers into cannon fodder. Macet was executed for his role in the attempted coup, and such an alliance never occurred, though they still managed an alliance with the Breen, which gave us some trouble for a time. Starfleet decided to put the augments on this station to use and figure out the chances for victory; it was rather low with an appalling loss of life in the process and some of the augments talked about turning over Starfleet’s plans to the Dominion and surrendering to protect their adopted families. Thankfully, your counterpart was able to convince them not to give up without a fight, and instead reworked the plans to give us the best chance at survival, which we did achieve.

It was a year later Zimmerman’s group planted the bomb, furious that the augments had had such a role in our survival and victory. Before that, however, Dr. Winters had been found alive in a prison camp, but suffering from PTSD in the form of rampant paranoia; he even attacked a Romulan senator because he thought he was a Changeling. Winters’ was out and Starfleet had a shortage of doctors at the time; Damar asked for himself and I to be assigned here as protection since Julian had played such a key role in exposing a major plan of the Dominion’s and might seek revenge. Cardassia agreed since Damar was their double agent in ferreting out traitors, and, with my father being dead by then, I was assigned as the CMO; the Bajorans were less than thrilled, especially since Macet and I looked so much alike, but Julian spoke for me as I had always been gentle with him. I further appeased the Bajorans by installing Julian as my assistant so he could keep an eye on me and learn more about medicine at the same time; Starfleet forbade Julian from achieving a medical licence, but it couldn’t forbid him from learning or me, a Cardassian citizen, having him as my assistant. By then, some had even been secretly going to Julian anyway, simply because he had a much more friendly demeanor than Winters, so the Bajoran nurses and doctors agreed to my ‘compromise’.” Dukat explained, and it hurt Julian a little at the realization that Dukat, at least his Dukat, really had been responsible for the deaths and suffering of his friends. Still, he had his priorities and turned to Sisko, after gently nudging Ezri off his lap (was she pouting?), to ask,

“How long until my Defiant is back up and running? Since I survived, it’s more than likely the strange energy that brought me here stopped me from hitting the Founder’s ship, so I should return as soon as I can to continue helping in the fight.” Julian thought he saw some strange emotion flitter through Sisko’s eyes, but it was gone as the Captain asked,

“Chief?”

“I’d say at least five days, and that’s just to clear out all the radiation your warp core leaked and sterilise the ship; I don’t suppose it comes as any surprise that you were the only survivor, as according to Dukat, those who weren’t outright killed from their injuries in the fight, died from radiation poisoning. Then, there’s the fact your ship has more extras than our own Defiant that we need to carefully navigate, while also having taken quite a beating in your last fight, and it looks like she hasn’t been given a good going over in a long time; before you try and figure out a way to get back to your own universe, there’s no way you’re flying in anything less than a perfectly healthy ship, and she needs time to recover, like you do. Uh, lieutenant-commander.” Miles remembered at the last minute that this Julian was a Starfleet officer, and a rather high-ranking one at that, even if he didn’t think he deserved it. Julian sighed in annoyance at the thought of being out of action for so long, but he couldn’t argue that none of the engineers at the station had O’Brien’s skill when dealing with the Defiant, so the ship had been receiving the equivalent of iodine and bandaids for over a year, and probably could do with an overhaul.

“Wonderful; I’m stranded in a universe where I have nothing and I’ll be here for at least a week by the sounds of things.” Julian felt Garak slip a hand on his upper back and start rubbing while Sisko assured him,

“I assure you, doctor, that you will be afforded every care we offer guests and refugees that come aboard and you will be allowed full run of the station while you are here… though I am afraid you will have to wear a collar like the other augments since someone is bound to report to Starfleet that you are here and we want to avoid any nasty rumours of favouritism.” Julian was confused by this and stated,

“I’m not trying to cause problems, Captain, but why would I need to wear a collar? I don’t have any features like your Julian did, so couldn’t we just say that I wasn’t augmented; I hid for almost eighteen years and I give you my word, for whatever it’s worth, I would not do anything to jeopardize that. I would even agree to someone from security watching me while I moved about the station if it eased your worries.”

“We appreciate the counter, Julian, but, well…” Julian had seldom seen the Colonel at a loss for words and wondered what had her so tongue-tied. Jadzia tried to explain,

“What Nerys is trying to say is that, while studying why these features develop is forbidden to try and stop scientists from continuing Adam Soong’s work, we believe our universe has a different type of energy free-floating around than yours does, and that may be why our augments develop these features in combination with the procedures used. We actually had another Bashir stumble into our universe from another who was augmented, though he was sadistic and cruel as his universe’s Khan won his eugenics war. Thankfully, our Julian and the other augments were down on Bajor for a sort of family picnic we like to reward the augments with every few months, and Bashir wanted to leave as quickly as possible to get away from the ‘disgraces’ as he called them. He wasn’t affected by our universe's energy… but you seem to be.” Julian felt a moment of disconnect as he tried to understand just what Jadzia was saying; she couldn’t mean…

“I’m afraid you didn’t notice because of the muscle relaxant still in your system, but they’ve been slowly developing since Odo found you on the Defiant, hence why we were fairly certain you were an augment. We should have told you, but you were already dealing with the shock of seeing us and…” Damar trailed off and Garak sighed as he pulled out a pocket mirror that had belonged to his Julian (being with the smugglers had taught the boy to never underestimate the value of anything, even a compact mirror). He then opened it and gave it to this Julian, who first examined the top of his head, and saw cream-coloured ears on top of his head; they looked to belong to possibly a canine of some sort, perhaps a jackal or fox? Moving the mirror down, he saw that he had also developed wings that had moved through the shirt Garak had given him without tearing it; the first word that sprang to his mind when he looked at these wings was colourful.

They definitely weren’t the wings of a dove like his counterpart, any more than his ears were that of a Bengal Cat; the underside of the wings was a sort of light copper like a brand-new Canadian penny his uncle who collected old currency had once shown him. He swallowed hard as he put the mirror down and looked at his wings so he saw what others would see when he walked away and saw the feathers were iridescent purple for the primary and secondary feathers, iridescent blue for the primary and secondary coverts, and iridescent green with small white spots along the coverts and alula - offhand, he’d say they were the wings of some kind of hummingbird as there weren’t many birds with such colourful feathers. He didn’t know how, but he managed to raise his wing enough so he could examine his rear, and sure enough, the trousers he had secretly thought rode a little low on his hips (they were free and he had missed some of Garak’s creations since he died) there was a fluffy, cream-coloured tail that was black at the very tip. His breathing started to become erratic as he reached out and touched his wing and, to his horror, it was real. He didn’t even register that he had jumped out of his seat and was trying to pull the wing off as though it were a costume and not attached to his scapula.

“Julian! Stop! You’ll hurt yourself!” Julian wasn’t even certain who spoke as the wings shot out, thankfully missing Ezri, but all he could think of was,

“No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO! I can’t be an even bigger freak!” Julian wasn’t even aware he was shouting as the wing tried to pull itself out of his grasp, and he tried to ignore how the sensation felt like someone was trying to wrench his arm out of its socket.

“Julian, look out!” That had been Garak’s voice, but Julian had no chance to wonder about what danger he was in as the wing rotated out of his hand and pushed but, instead of sending him flying into the wardroom’s table, he was sent backwards, into the bulkhead. He was stunned long enough to hear Sisko order,

“Damar! Worf!” Julian then found himself pinned to the bulkhead by two solidly built men, and not even Julian’s enhanced strength could move him as his wings fluttered against the viewports before Dukat held another hypospray to his neck and he started calming down almost as soon as he heard the hiss.

“That’s it, just try to take it easy, Julian.” Damar stated as Dukat ran his tricorder over Julian’s face.

“You must take deep breaths, doctor; it will help you.” Worf stated and Julian did his best to do as instructed as he looked at Dukat and asked,

“Tranquilizer? I feel too calm for another muscle relaxant.” Dukat gave a small smile as he replied,

“Yes, a mild one; I’m sorry but I-” Julian merely shook his head and replied,

“No, you did the right thing; I overreacted, was borderline hysterical, and could have hurt someone; it was pure luck I didn’t hit Ezri.” Worf moved away but Damar carefully pulled Julian into his arms and rubbed his lower back, beneath the wings which were slowly calming down. Ezri managed to squeeze in by Worf and started rubbing Julian’s neck, showing she didn’t hold Julian’s near attack against him. It was Garak who responded with,

“I would hardly call it overreacting my dear, considering today alone you have been in a battle, lost more of your crewmates, lost a kidney, seen dead friends alive again, found out about a version of yours death, and developed, although very lovely, new appendages. If you didn’t react at all, I would be very concerned for your mental state; I find it very healthy that you still have ‘final straws’ to lose.” Julian swallowed again as he saw Garak smile, and asked,

“Any idea why the limbs are so different? These ears and tail don’t belong to any cat I can think of, and these definitely aren’t the wings of a dove; the only bird I can think of that can fly backwards is a hummingbird.”

“Well, you said that you managed to hide your augmentations from your friends and then your crew since you were fifteen; that would indicate a level of cunning, adaptability, cleverness, and resilience, all traits associated with foxes, which I think that’s what those are, Dukat?” Jadzia asked since Dukat was the one scanning Julian, and he nodded as he replied,

“Yes, and I would say they are the ears and tail of a fennec fox, a species found in Northern Africa, where our Julian hailed from after his parents left England. Julian?” Julian nodded as the tranquilizer, combined with the stress of the day, started making him feel a little sleepy.

“Our Julian did his best to stay hidden with his crew, but not to the same degree you did as it was literally impossible for him to hide so it was more like keep himself hidden from Starfleet officials and those sorts, and had always been very catlike in his curiosity. And the hummingbird wings-”

“Velvet-Purple Coronet.”

“Well, I hope to see how they fit you as I’ve always loved watching hummingbirds flit about and, if it's any consolation, they are incredibly beautiful.” Jadzia finished, not knowing this Julian well enough to speculate how such beautiful wings matched this soldier.

“Alright, I think that’s more than enough; he’s about to fall asleep on Damar and, though I imagine Damar wouldn’t mind, the Cardassian chest plate was not designed for people to fall asleep on.” Dukat ordered and it was the first time this Dukat had sounded anything like ‘Gul Dukat of the Second Order’, though it was lightened by the smile Dukat and Damar shared.

“Agreed, doctor, do you want him to spend the night in the infirmary? I imagine he’d like a soft bed if we can avoid the infirmary.” Sisko asked, to which Julian responded,

“My personal quarters, among others, were destroyed in an attack just over four months ago and I’ve been sleeping on a cot or at my desk in the infirmary since then; a comfortable patch of floor would suit me if you don’t have the room.” The others wanted to think he was joking, but Miles, Damar, and Dukat knew the feeling all too well of any surface becoming a welcome spot for a nap in the middle of a war. Before Sisko could offer up some room meant for visiting dignitaries, Miles offered,

“He could stay in our spare room, couldn’t he Nerys?” Miles asked and Julian was confused by the question, further when she replied,

“I don’t see a problem with it, though we better tell Keiko before we bring him in or she’ll have a heart attack, thankfully Molly and Yoshi should be asleep by now; I don’t know how we’ll explain this to her as Yoshi was barely a year old when Julian died, but it’s not like we can hide it.”

“The three of you are in a relationship?” Julian asked and everyone felt their hearts clench a little; despite the cream-coloured fox ears instead of brown cat ears, and stunning wings in many colours opposed to soft white, this Julian was painfully reminiscent of theirs in that he looked like a sleepy child at the moment.

“Yeah, thanks to your counterpart actually, he-”

“Tomorrow, Chief; Julian here still looks like he could use a quick meal and a long sleep, followed by a long bath.” Jadzia pointed out, to which Miles nodded as he again looked at Julian, and saw that he looked ready to fall asleep on his feet and he did need to tell Keiko - she hadn’t been as close to Julian as the rest of them had, but she had considered him a friend and had been intimate with him on occasion. He saw Julian try to stand on his own but Worf moved faster and picked him up effortlessly, which seemed to wake him up a little as he yelped and grabbed the Klingon’s shoulders.

“Gently, please Commander Worf; he’s hardly delicate but regenerators and hypos can only do so much.” Dukat asked while Damar and Ezri glared at Worf.

“Apologies. Jadzia and my quarters are close to Chief O’Brien’s quarters so I will carry him, that way if it’s too much for Keiko, he can stay with us, agreed?” Jadzia smiled at her husband as she nodded her approval at the counter.

“Well, since that’s settled, we shall see you in the morning, doctor. Goodnight everyone.” Julian froze when Sisko ruffled his hair, somehow avoiding his fox ears in the process, before leaving. Ezri came over and kissed his cheek before she left, an action mirrored by Garak, Damar, and Dukat before they left as well. Kira merely ruffled his hair again before leading their group out of the wardroom and to the turbolift. They were all silent as they rode the lift to the habitat ring, with Julian trying to process how affectionate everyone was with him; there had been times when he wanted to hug his crewmates but, apart from Jadzia and Ezri, they had often looked like they would throw him out an airlock if he tried it. He was brought out of his musings when they left the lift and stopped in front of O’Brien’s (and Nerys’?) quarters.

Chapter Text

“OK, Nerys and I are going to go in and talk to Keiko, but I’m sure she won’t have a problem with you staying with us.” Miles stated as he placed a hand on Julian’s shoulder.

“I don’t think the issue will be him staying with you, Chief; the problem will be Keiko and Molly cuddling with Julian in his bed and not letting him go.” Jadzia joked, though they all, save Julian, knew that was a very real possibility as their Julian had been Molly’s favourite babysitter. Miles and Nerys nodded before going in, and Julian took the chance to ask,

“Uh, Commander Worf? Can you… let me down, please? I promise I won’t fall over or anything.” Jadzia smiled as Worf set Julian down, but kept a hand on him just in case. She also grabbed the ration pack she had grabbed from Garak before they parted and handed it to Julian; she would have loved to give him a real meal but Dukat had been right in that Julian looked ready to collapse. No doubt, Keiko would make a good breakfast in the morning for the weary soldier. Julian ate it quickly (no time for leisurely meals in a battle zone after all), which was a good thing as there was a bit of a commotion inside.

“Seriously, you can even put me in the brig for the night if it’s going to be this much of an issue.” Julian offered just as the door whipped open and Keiko came rushing out in her nightgown, and stared at Julian like the others had, as though he were a specter from beyond. Her hand came up to her mouth as she stifled a sob, and she hugged Julian as though if she let go for a minute, he would disappear again.

“I know you aren’t the same Julian who would come up with all kinds of games for you and Molly to play or the Julian who almost burned our quarters down when you tried to make dinner for us because we were all busy, but fuck I am so happy to see you.” Keiko had needed to console Molly for months when Julian had sacrificed himself to save the station, and when she had gotten the chance, she had enacted her own revenge - Quark had always tried to keep Julian away from the Dabo tables because he knew how to play them so he would win every time, a trick he perfected with his smuggling crew, though he never pressed his luck, but Julian had always tended to any ill workers who didn’t want to see Winters (the man was rather off-putting if one wasn’t human, and especially didn’t like Ferengi; poor Rom would have died from his ear infection if not for Julian). He had used his connections to find Zimmerman’s group who had planted the bomb, and had been able to find a way to deliver some brownies she made special with the pollen of Bolian sunflowers; flowers that were pink and green instead of yellow and brown like Terran sunflowers. They had been a favourite of their Julian’s, though he never kept any since, once a year, the pollen turned toxic to everything around them for seven days, and then the pollen turned fertile, and beautiful flowers sprung up; Julian had shown her through a program on a padd once and it had been stunning to watch. When they did an autopsy on those bastards, their insides had been full of radiant flowers; she was certain Sisko and the others knew what she had done but she and Quark had made sure there were no links back to them and no one ever said anything - Garak had even looked impressed.

“It’s been a long time since I saw you too, even if you aren’t the Keiko who played Miles and I like a pair of suckers so that we would still spend time together after you found out you were pregnant with Yoshi, all because we were so mopey, you thought you’d kill us.” Keiko chuckled, as that truly sounded like something she would have done.

“So I take it it’s no problem for him to at least spend the night here?” Jadzia asked and she was certain that she was right in that the only problem would be getting Keiko to let go of Julian.

“Of course not! Do you want something to eat? I’ve never crossed universes but you honestly look like a stiff breeze would knock you over.” Keiko offered, but Julian shook his head as he responded,

“Thank you, Keiko, but I just had a ration pack and I’ve been awake for almost seventy-five hours on top of the battle against the Founders - everyone thinks I’m joking but the floor is the most appealing thing right now.” Keiko gently stroked his face, not even flinching at the two-day-old stubble there, with a soft smile and nodded but replied,

“OK, but you’re getting a good breakfast in the morning! Now come in, before-”

“Molly, wait!” They heard Miles call from his quarters just before a small torpedo came shooting out of the room and wrapped herself around Julian’s leg, causing him to grab Keiko and Worf for balance. Miles and Kira came out and both looked apologetic. 

“Sorry, she was getting up for a glass of water and heard us tell Keiko that Julian was here, but I don’t think she understands the fact he’s from another universe.” Miles stated as he looked apologetically at the alternate universe doctor, who looked very pale at the moment. Molly then looked up at him and asked,

“Uncle Julian, why are your ears, tail, and wings different? They’re very pretty but also very different from your old ones.”

“Molly, I-” Julian tried to speak but could feel his throat closing as he looked at an eight-year-old Molly; his Molly had died before she could make it to eight.

“Oh, you must want Kuky! I’ve been taking good care of him!” Molly ran back into her quarters to get ‘Kuky’, whoever or whatever that was, and Kira took the chance to apologize,

“We’re so sorry Julian; if we had known she was awake, we would have told Keiko in our bedroom.”

“She… she could probably hear us talking as well and naturally remembered Uncle Julian’s voice.”

“Julian, are you OK?” Jadzia asked, wondering if he was as close to his O’Brien’s as their Julian had been.

“My… my Molly didn’t make it to her eighth birthday.” Julian revealed as Molly came back out, holding a very dear friend.

“Kukalaka.” Julian whispered as Molly placed the teddy bear in his hands, and Julian couldn’t stop the tears that fell. Jadzia saved him with,

“Molly, sweetheart, Uncle Julian is very tired and it’s past your bedtime too; maybe he’ll feel up to spending some time with you tomorrow, OK?”

“OK, goodnight Aunt Jadzia, Uncle Worf, Uncle Julian, Auntie Nerys, Daddy.” Molly said as Keiko led her back inside. Julian was barely conscious of Jadzia kissing his cheek and giving him a hug as Miles and Kira led him into the guest room that, in Julian’s universe, had been Kira’s room while she carried Yoshi. Julian seemed to pass out before his head properly hit the pillow so he missed Kira and Miles tucking him in, making sure he had a good grip on Kukalaka (Prophets, had those Changeling bastards even taken Kukalaka from him?), and the two couldn’t resist giving him a little kiss to the forehead before wishing him pleasant dreams.

* Julian found himself on one of the lower pylons, wondering how he got there when he saw Miles, Keiko, and their children walking past him. It was odd because Molly was only seven, nothing like the eight-year-old he had seen before he went to bed. That’s when he noticed the clothes they were wearing - they were the same as the day… Oh God, no, please!

He tried running to them, calling out for them to stop, but it felt like he was running through molasses and his mouth was sewn shut. Soon, there were others there as well, all waving the O’Brien’s off as though they were going on a cruise like in the old holomovies, and Julian was still trying to stop them when they boarded the runabout. The ship didn’t get the chance to decouple before the bomb went off, enveloping them all in flames before Julian woke up screaming. *

Julian’s scream as he jolted awake seemed louder than normal, and he distantly acknowledged that his new ears must be even more sensitive to sound than his old ears were. His wings were flicking back and forth as he screamed bloody murder, but soon a heavy blanket was thrown over his back, pinning his wings; before he could try to focus on this new sensation, he was being held tightly.

“JULIAN! Julian, listen to me! You’re OK! You’re on DS9, here with us! Try to breathe, buddy!” Julian tried to do as Miles asked, but he found he was having trouble separating the two experiences from his memories to what was going on now. Suddenly, all sensation was localized in his tail as he felt a gentle pulling sensation, similar to what he felt when he combed his hair when he first woke up, but infinitely more… soothing was the only word for it. He remembers, that when he was Jules, there were times he would get so worked up he had trouble breathing; his parents hated how much negative attention it brought to them, but Aunt Zara was different. She would scold his parents for acting like he chose to act up, gather him in her arms, and gently pet his hair while she hummed soothing songs to him (she had been a great lover of classical music, with a particular love of Cher, David Bowie, and Elton John). Julian could feel a similar calming effect taking over him as it spread outward from his tail, reaching up his spine to his hair and down his thighs to his toes.

“That’s it, mate; just breathe, take it easy - no one’s going to hurt you here.”

“Mommy, is Uncle Julian OK?” Molly asked, and Julian flinched at the thought he had disturbed her sleep twice in one night.

“Yes, sweetheart; he just had a bad dream and is upset now.” Keiko calmly explained, trying to usher her daughter back to sleep a third time, only for Molly to exclaim,

“Oh, then he’ll need tear fuel to avoid a headache! I’ll get him a drink of water!” Molly soon came back with two glasses of water and leaned over her father’s back to help Julian drink one of them.

“I remember when I was little and you told me to always drink lots of water when I felt like crying because otherwise I’d dehydrate and have a bad headache, making myself feel even worse. Is two glasses enough, Uncle Julian or do you need more? I usually need three myself, though I find I stop crying by then.” This Molly had apparently picked up Julian’s tendency to babble in certain situations.

“Just remember to go slow with it, Molly - Uncle Julian may be having a little trouble controlling his breathing and swallowing.” Kira advised from behind Julian, leading him to believe whatever the soothing sensation was, she was somehow responsible.

“Yes, Auntie Nerys.”

“He’s coming down though; I think the water and tail brushing are breaking through his nightmare. That’s it, Julian, deep breaths between swallows - no one’s going to hurt you here.” Molly retrieved the second cup while her father reassured him, and waited for Julian to give her a sign he wanted more, but Julian could only mumble,

“I’m sorry I woke you all, I’m sorry to be a-”

“Don’t!” Julian was stunned at how harshly the word had come out of Miles’ mouth and Keiko looked a little uncomfortable as well.

“Don’t… be sorry for having a nightmare, mate… especially with the year you went through before you got here. Don’t… be sorry.” Julian soon had the second cup at his lips again and he drank a little more water (God, he hoped he didn’t wet the bed; he’d airlock himself if he did). After that cup was finished, he found himself resting his head on Miles’ shoulder in a way his friend had only allowed when he knew Julian was asleep.

“OK Molly, I think Uncle Julian has enough tear fuel for now and it looks like he wants to go back to sleep; you did a good job helping Daddy and Auntie Nerys with him, but now you should get back to sleep.” Keiko instructed and Molly nodded before leaning up to kiss Julian on the cheek.

“Goodnight Uncle Julian, and don’t feel bad if you have another nightmare; Yoshi’s room is soundproof and the only reason I got up was to use the bathroom. Daddy and Auntie Nerys will keep any more bad dreams away.” Molly then followed her mother out and Julian was trying not to cry again.

“Here, I think Kukalaka fell when he jolted awake.” Kira stated as the sensations in his tail stopped and she leaned down to pick the bear up.

“What… did you… do to my… tail?” Julian sounded ready to fall back asleep but wanted to know about the strange sensation.

“Sorry for springing that on you, but the augments who develop tails have stated that it’s very soothing to have their tails preened; it’s actually in no way sexual if you’re worried about that. Many use it as a way to soothe their augments when they’re upset or get them ready for bed, even the ones with tails of reptiles or fish, though they use a lotion to help massage and rehydrate them. Some augments with tails on the station even get together in augment-only areas and have a sort of communal brush/massage together since it can be so relaxing but can be a little awkward to do to yourself.” Kira explained as she joined Miles in rubbing Julian’s back, focusing on the lower back while Miles worked the upper back and neck.

“Oh.” Was all Julian could say as he could feel himself falling back under, Miles and Kira waited a few minutes before laying him back down, and Kira lightly ran her fingers through Julian’s hair when he whimpered, sending a silent prayer to the Prophets for them to watch over Julian for the rest of the night and keep him safe. In the morning, she’d ask Dukat if he could prescribe something to prevent nightmares for a time; she knew dreaming was essential, but nightmares like these were only detrimental.

* The Next Morning *

Julian whimpers a little as he awakens and wonders for a moment where he is as he’s hit with smells that have eluded him for almost a year now until he feels his new wing twitch and he’s reminded that he has fallen into another alternate universe, though this one is arguably better than the first mirror universe he and Major Kira fell into. True, augments are kept as pets but, as angry as the thought made Julian, he wanted to reserve judgment until he talked to come of the augments on the station. He jerked at the sound of his doors opening.

“Hi, Uncle Julian; do you feel like having some breakfast? Mommy also said we could do brunch if you prefer. And Uncle Garak sent these over this morning for you, along with some other clothes.” Molly asked as she came in with a new set of clothes, and on top was a thin collar Julian imagined was the one he would have to wear around the station - it was teal in colour, similar to his old uniform.

“Mr. Garak told Mommy and Daddy when he dropped it off that he already lined it with silk so it won’t hurt like your first collar the bad people put on you. Oops! I mean the other you. I like that collar a lot better than the old one though.” Molly explained as Julian examined the collar and found the lining to be as soft as the clothing Garak had given him while the outside appeared to be Andorian leather.

“So, they explained it to you?” Julian asked as he thumbed a switch to open the collar.

“Yes, I think; Uncle Garak said you were from an alternate dimension where you’re all alone now, though he wouldn’t explain where we all were.”

“‘Uncle’ Garak?” Miles would have thrown a fit over his daughter calling a ‘Cardie’ uncle.

“Yeah; Mommy insisted on it because of how close Mr. Garak was to my Uncle Julian, so she thought it was appropriate. Daddy wasn’t happy for a while, but then he saw that mommy was right.” Julian hid a smile even as he put the collar on. ‘ Translation: Keiko scolded Miles for his language and borderline racist behaviour and refused to let him near her until he apologized and accepted her decision. ’

“Yeah, that colour looks better on you than your, sorry, my Uncle Julian’s old one.”

“What colour was it?” Julian asked as he got out of bed; he would change after he ate and took a shower.

“Brown, Uncle Julian wasn’t one for flashy colours.” This made sense to Julian as this universe’s Julian couldn’t truly hide, but he spent almost fifteen years with smugglers; hardly a group that would wear memorable colours that would make them stand out. They then walked out into the main room, where Keiko was finishing setting up an almost three-year-old Yoshi in his high chair; Julian did his best not to be overly emotional again around a little boy who would never grow up in his universe.

“About time you two! Yoshi and I were debating setting up for lunch if you two took any longer!” Keiko kidded as she brought Yoshi closer to her seat on her right while Molly took the seat on her left, leaving Julian between the children and across from Keiko.

“I hope you don’t mind two different breakfast foods; I could only go off what I remembered our Julian liked to eat and you looked like you needed a special breakfast after last night.” Keiko explained as she brought over the food, refusing to let Julian help her.

“Again, I’m-”

“Don’t be silly; nightmares happen, especially for soldiers. Now, we have congee with salmon and brussel sprouts, and we have beid bel basturma with aish beladi; dig in and don’t be shy about asking for a second helping.” Julian’s mouth watered at the sight and smell of a comfort dish from his childhood (once again courtesy of Aunt Zara, as his father did all he could to act British). The quartet ate in silence, though Molly was privately thinking of some games she hoped to wrangle Julian into later, though he’d probably need a nap later considering how badly that dream shook him last night.

After breakfast, Keiko asked if Julian would mind joining her on the promenade while she ran some errands, and he agreed, though naturally wanted to clean up first. He quickly found that his new ears despised the sounds of the sonics after he turned them on and had to bite his tongue as it felt like he was standing next to a jackhammer he had seen once in a holofilm. He quickly shut it off and switched to the water setting, something that brought new discomfort as his wings and tail became soaked, with the wings suddenly becoming much heavier before they jerked the water away, sending him flying into the wall. He moved quickly after that, though washing his hair almost gave him an erection as he neared the base of his ears and it was like someone was kissing that weak spot on his neck that turned his legs to jelly. When he finally got out, he wondered how his alternate self bathed with such limitations, but maybe it had been easier since Bengal cats liked water. He frankly thought he would get whiplash with the way he kept shaking his head, trying to get the water out of his ears.

“Oh, Julian! I’m sorry! I forgot to warn you about the sonics and the care you need with your appendages with water! We’ll get you some care products and I’ll talk to one of the augments with animal ears, and see if they can offer up any tips while you’re here.” Keiko apologized when she saw Julian, now in a maroon outfit (that naturally looked fetching and gave a small tease of the shoulder; Garak couldn’t resist falling back into old habits), his ears still flicking to get the water out and his tail flicking in agitation to get the rest of the water out.

“Thank you, Keiko; how did my alternate self handle it?”

“Well, actually, we would help him; the first thing was that our Julian took baths, not showers, and there was an oil we applied to his tail and ears to keep the water out, and Garak designed a sort of slipcover for his wings when it was bath time.” Julian blushed as he realized the mirror counterparts of his friends (and possibly two enemies if Dukat and Damar were as close to their Julian as the others implied) had bathed him as though he were an invalid or child. Soon, a Caitian girl named Csaia, whom Julian thankfully did not know, appeared at the door to watch Molly and Yoshi while Keiko and Julian ran their errands. The first stop was a store near the lifts that tended to augment grooming needs, though the owners, another Caitian named Shrall and a Bolian named Qedar Drall, advised Julian to see Garak about getting new covers for his wings. As they exited the shop and stepped fully onto the promenade, Julian found himself hit with a wall of noise that was hurting his new fox ears. As he covered his ears, Julian was also hit with how bright the promenade was; in recent months, a number of the civilian shop tenders had left the station and, to conserve power, the promenade had gone back to the original Cardassian settings.

“Julian?” Keiko gently touched Julian’s shoulder to help him, but the sudden contact caused Julian to jump a little, and his wings again propelled him backwards, this time causing him to fall into a small group of Bajorans, humans, and Simon Tarses, who immediately helped Julian back on his feet.

“Julian? Are you alright? You look very - Julian! Wait!” It was all too much for Julian; Simon had arrived on the station not long after Ezri and Worf’s deaths and, against Julian’s better judgment, the pair had become fast friends over their lies - even Garak had liked Simon. Simon had the blood of a-then-enemy (considering the Romulans were their allies then) and Julian was illegally augmented by his parents’ wishes; neither had asked for their circumstances but Starfleet had seemed like an escape and they had taken it, only for it all to be revealed. Simon had been exposed by an over-zealous judge who saw conspiracies in every little secret thanks to her ego, and Julian by his moronic parents who couldn’t tell him from a hologram. Simon had been part of an away team that was to help in one of Starfleet’s many battles, only for a Jem’Hadar torpedo to take out part of the Defiant ’s deck three, where Simon had been standing - Garak had helped him get through the death of that friend as well. Julian didn’t even realize where he was heading until he was inside Garak’s shop, trying to get his breathing under control as he slid down the wall to the floor.

“Julian, sweetie, can you hear me?” Ezri’s voice, God, he was drowning and could think of nothing to stop it. There was a hiss at his neck and some of the thoughts drowning him receded, but he was still very close to the edge when he heard,

“My dear, I am quite pleased that you would visit my shop on your first day here, but you look a little upset - perhaps you would like to go into my back room? It’s very quiet there, and I keep the lighting much softer; it’s very relaxing there. Would you like that?” Julian tried to get himself under control ‘ We can’t afford to have people of your skill crack up, Bashir! ’ Ross’ voice echoed through his mind, but all he could do was nod.

“Very good, Julian; is it alright if Garak and I help you stand and move to his backroom?” Julian didn’t know where Damar had come from, but whimpered as a small pinprick of pleasure broke through his anxiety - where did that come from? Damar and Garak moved slowly so as not to spook him and gently touched his elbows, offering to help him stand. Julian was trying to speak when Ezri appeared behind Garak and handed him something before moving away so she didn’t crowd Julian. Garak then held the thing up so Julian could see it and saw it was a small circular frame on an easel that had no picture but was instead filled with blue, pink, and black sand; Garak spun it around and the sand slowly slid down the glass, creating a new pattern from the one before. When Julian came back to himself, he was in an almost perfect replica of his Garak’s backroom, though his had not had a small bed in addition to the small couch he kept there when he wanted to be comfortable while working on alterations or dreaming up designs.

“There we go, that’s better, just try to take it easy Julian; you’re doing so well.” Damar ran the tricorder along Julian’s face, apparently not noticing when Julian whimpered as that pleasure spike ran down his back again - maybe he thought it was just Julian?

“How’s his read-out, Damar?” Ezri asked as she gave Julian some juice with a straw in it. Before he could answer, Julian said,

“I’m being a picture of mental health, aren’t I? Two freak-outs and a nightmare in less than 26 hours; maybe I should stay in the brig until my Defiant is fixed before I hurt someone.”

“Julian, I may not have the medical knowledge that Dukat does, but I promise we don’t lock people in the brig for surviving a war with more than a few mental scars.” Damar assured as he showed Garak the readout.

“Yes, you need proper rest and a few good meals; not confinement and self-flagellation.” Ezri added as she encouraged Juian to drink his juice.

“Though, if you want a little isolation, my quarters are warm, and private, with many soft fabrics for you to curl up in, and I have many books for you to read.” Garak offered as he turned down the lights to a step above Cardassian comfort so Ezri could still see without bumping into anything.

“ Our Julian didn’t like The Never-Ending Sacrifice , and I doubt this one likes it any better, and 75% of your library is in Kardasi!” Ezri teased before Julian spoke up.

“I, uh, actually, can speak and read Kardasi - I learned it in secret after I was convinced my Garak was deliberately bullshitting me on certain translated novels and Garak taught me more to help him in his code-breaking duties. And, no; I do not enjoy The Never-Ending Sacrifice as I found it a bit dull.” Garak spluttered in an exaggerated offence as Damar rolled his eyes and said,

“You can keep the sand art; a child brought it on the station once and a good portion loved them because of how soothing it was to watch the sand like an hourglass. Quark tried making money on them but the kid beat him to it; she made quite a few strips of latinum selling them before she left. Dukat keeps a large supply of them for people who are stressed or not feeling well but too anxious to rest. I’ll head back and let Keiko know you’re okay; do you want Kukalaka or anything? It would only take a few minutes to grab him.” Julian appreciated the thought but could only imagine how humiliating it would look for a grown man to be carrying a teddy bear around, so just shook his head.

“OK, just have Ezri or Garak comm me if you change your mind; we have a couple of interns Dukat loves to make run around and do things for him when we have a slow day.” Damar joked (Julian hoped ) before leaving.

“Stupid question, but are you physically alright, Julian? You’re tensing your shoulders a lot.” Ezri asked.

“I think it’s my wings - they must add about ten pounds to my body weight, and they’ve been feeling even heavier since my shower, but I thought I got all the water out.”

“You took a shower? Not a bath?” Ezri asked, which had Julian sigh as he explained,

“For almost a year now, I have been on call almost 26 hours a day, especially when Dr. Vasiva Zair from Gamma shift was killed and Dr. Thallaz from Beta and I had to cover it, so I’ve been taking sonic showers which are faster than water showers; I tried to take one this morning and almost blew my ears off so I took a water one which was highly uncomfortable as well-” Julian was cut off when he felt strong hands on his shoulders and started kneading them.

“My dear, those wings could not create this knot in less than a day, though the water weighing them down did exasperate it. When was the last time you relaxed?”

“I’m a doctor in the middle of a war on a station that once housed over five thousand people and when I wound up here there were barely seven hundred, all of whom were either Starfleet personnel or Bajoran military officers, Mr. Garak, hardly the time to be asking for a week off to Risa.”

“And your holosuites? I know you said Quark was killed but Rom-”

“They were a drain on the station’s power supply; Commander Orun, who was commander before she was killed and Commander Th’zollil took over, ordered they be shut down, and Rom worried too much for Leeta’s safety so he sent her down to Bajor, closed the bar, and devoted all his time and energy to keeping the station running. Now if you don’t mi-” Julian was cut off when he felt a sharp pain as Garak found a particularly tough knot and forced it into submission at the same time he felt that same soothing sensation from last night. He whimpered as he turned his head and saw Ezri brushing his tail.

“Wh-what are you-?”

“Sorry, sweetie; this is usually only done between augments and owners but your tail was becoming matted thanks to the water still clinging to it, and believe me this would hurt a lot more if that happened. Though it’s a good thing all replicators have care products programmed in; can you imagine trying to get Julian’s comb through this one’s tail? It would snap like a twig!” Ezri laughed before she saw Julian’s head drooping; she really should have waited until Garak was done with his massage as this double-whammy was a little unfair on this Julian, but even now, she could see him flinch as the brush caught the small tangles that had been forming in the wet fur.

“Very true, dear; a comb meant for a cat’s tail is simply no match for a fox’s tail. That’s it, my dear, just relax; nothing can harm you here. The only Changelings around here are Odo and the young one he found and has been raising as his daughter; we’ll have to remember to introduce you - she loves copying the augments features and your wings will just amaze her as she loves a challenge.” Garak prattled on, and Julian had forgotten just how soothing he found Garak’s voice as he talked about fabrics, literature, or taught him Kardasi. His eyelids felt like they weighed thirty pounds each as he fought to keep them open.

“It’s OK Julian; you just take a little nap right now and we’ll watch over you while you do. You really are such a brave boy for surviving so long, but even brave boys like you need their rest.” Julian wasn’t even registering what Ezri was saying, only that the pleasurable tingles were back and adding to his exhaustion. As Garak dug his thumbs into the muscle between his wing joints and coaxed the last muscle to relax, it was like someone threw his off switch and he passed out, with Garak holding him upright by the shoulders, though he and Ezri tried to be quick as they laid Julian out so he would be flat-out on the bed, with Ezri removing the boots he had been wearing (she would have to remember to get him some new footwear; none of them had noticed but these were rather stained with blood). They first laid a swatch of Rigellian silk over him, then some Andorian wool for warmth, and Garak managed to raise Julian’s head enough to get a cushion under it. He also managed to activate the heart monitor feature on the collar; if he had another nightmare while he desperately tried to rest, they would be alerted.