Plain, Simple, Star Trek Trash

Anew

Posting this here from the other book I have exclusively on AO3 because Wattpad people deserve access to it too. This is a Wattpad-version-only addition to this story, for the reason mentioned above: It's already in a different book on AO3. Ok, go ahead now.

That was it. He was gone. Legate Damar, leader of the Cardassian rebellion, slain by petty weapons fire. Faded away in the arm of an exiled spy, not even able to choke out his last words. Gone. Dead.

So then why...was he in an underground hot spring sauna, of the kind enjoyed by the highest elites? The soothing heat of the steaming water bubbled and flowed over his skin and scales. The rock beneath him was hard and sturdy. The rest of the cavern was clear and present, containing dozens of other pools. If he was dead, in some kind of foolish afterlife, would such an afterlife really be so realistic?

There was a spark of brilliant violet light on the rim of Damar's pool, followed by a terrified yelp. The creature scrambled away from the unbearable(for it) heat and fell, flailing, to the moist floor of stone. Its reflective aspic eyes darted up, gleaming with pain, and met with Damar's.

Weyoun.

Blisters swelled up on his fragile pale skin alongside his scrapes and scratches, burning-red evidence of his intolerance to such Cardassian-level heat. Damar could only stare at him stoically, entirely unsure of what to make of his sudden appearance.

"Damar? Is that you?" Weyoun seemed to flinch with every word. "I thought you were killed. I thought I was killed. Is this..." Weyoun left his sentence unfinished. His hands were trembling and his face tensed up with fear and concern. He seemed genuinely terrified and disturbed at the mere suggestion of his having died permanently. Not to have a clone to replace him was a distant, unfamiliar possibility. His desperate eyes flashed frantically in search of an exit to the cavern, but found none.

Damar tsked with exasperation. A thought occurred to him just then. He lifted his hands out of the water and discovered that his claws had grown back into full, gleaming crescents. He checked underwater and found that his tail had also grown back completely. All of the tough plate scales on his arms, fingers, tail, back, and legs, all of them had re-formed. He blinked, deep in thought, and looked back down at Weyoun.

Weyoun had changed as well. His ears were larger and pointed, like those of a Cardassian desert soundfox. They retained their narrow, curved shape and inner ridges, but they were no longer stuck entirely to his skull; in this respect, they were attached more like Cardassian or Bajoran ears. His skin had stronger hues of lavender now, with fine patches of soft, shimmery fur all over. On his arms and legs, slightly longer hairs grew, all in some varying shade of purple or white-gold. He also had a fur-covered tail, longer, thinner, and more prehensile than Damar's, with aesthetically-pleasing rings of purple, black, and white. He looked like some kind of mutated lemur.

Weyoun now realized his own changes, staring down at his legs and arms. "W-...what?" he breathed softly, stunned. "By the Founders...what's happened to me?" He blinked worriedly and looked up, lost. "I'm really dead. I'm imagining this."

Before Damar could respond, a powerful, overwhelming vibration washed over the cavern, shocking both of them into stillness. A glowing, ethereal Cardassian female flooded into existence, a proud expression on her blue-accented face. Her pitch-black scowl fell hard upon the male lounging in the hot spring.

"Krrrrrrhhikeny Damar'onaakhlar frirrhj'an sparharak oobarhwaghey!" she snarled, regal voice reverberating powerfully. Damar stared at her blankly, realizing that he didn't understand anything she had said, except for his name. Was she speaking Archaic Cardassian? Hebitian? Damar had never been a student of history, so he had no knowledge of what the Cardassian language was like just a few hundred years ago; how could he possibly know it in its oldest forms? He lifted his hands out of the water and splayed out his fingers as widely as possibly, the Cardassian gesture for "I don't understand". The female hissed at him and flicked her forehead teardrop with her claws.