SUMMARY: My take on what happened to Dukat after the events of "What you leave behind". Contains a few spoilers for that episode.

DISCLAIMER: Star Trek DS9 and the Star Trek characters are owned by Paramount Pictures. All rights are reserved and no infringement is meant.

Many thanks to kira-nerys for being my beta reader.

He had fallen into fire, a long way down, but his landing was soft and without pain. Dukat could see nothing; there was total blackness wherever he looked. At first he simply waited, unwilling to move in case this made him start falling again. He knew that he could easily be on a precipice, perhaps only inches away from the edge. But the floor underneath him was reassuringly firm.

Dukat crawled several metres in each direction, examining the ground carefully as he went, until he was satisfied that he was not in any immediate danger. Only then did it occur to him to check himself over for injuries; he found none. There was no blood, no broken bones; even his clothes didn't seem to be ripped. He stood up, smiling to himself; perhaps things weren't so bad after all. At least he was alive, and maybe in time he could find his way to the surface.

Suddenly Dukat realised that the darkness was no longer absolute. Faint glimpses of light were steadily creeping in. After a few minutes it was as light as day, although he could not see any obvious source of illumination. He looked around eagerly and saw that he had arrived in an enclosed cave. There were dark stone walls all around, without a chink in the rock face anywhere. There was no obvious way out.

Dukat looked up and was astonished to see a rocky ceiling above his head. It looked immensely firm; obviously he could not have fallen through it. There could only be one explanation for his presence in this place. The Pah-wraiths must have brought him here and in doing so, they had saved his life once more. Dukat felt a surge of gratitude towards his powerful protectors. But then it occurred to him to wonder what had happened to the sacred book, and to Captain Sisko who had fallen with him?

"We have the book but we can no longer make any use of it," said a voice from behind him. "As for Sisko, he has escaped from us."

Dukat turned around and his face lit up as he saw the man who had now materialised in the cave. "Father!" he exclaimed with delight. It was the Pah-wraith who usually adopted the physical form of his father whenever they interacted.

It always thrilled Dukat to see a Pah-wraith who looked like his father. Some part of him knew that this wasn't his real father, but he liked to imagine that it might be. Sometimes the Pah-wraiths asked Dukat to do things which he felt were either too difficult, too dangerous or morally wrong. But when these requests were made by an entity who looked like his father, somehow it always seemed easier to comply. And of course, the Pah-wraiths knew this perfectly well.

Dukat walked over to him, intending to embrace the Pah-wraith as was his usual custom when they met in the world of visions. But the man pushed him away roughly, and there was a scornful expression on his face which he had never seen before.

"You failed us, Dukat."

"You mean--"

"The Prophets and their Emissary have prevailed. We are trapped again and we see no way out. You failed us."

Dukat shook his head. "No, I didn't fail you. I did everything I could; Sisko took me by surprise, caught me off guard..." But there was no understanding in the face of the Pah-wraith, and certainly no forgiveness.

"You were too busy dreaming of how you intended to punish Sisko to see the attack coming. The fault is yours. We saved you, we protected you - how do you repay us?"

Dukat trembled with fear as he finally realised how intensely furious the Pah-wraith was. Where *was* this place?

The other man heard his thoughts. "It is a place from which there is no escape," he told Dukat with cold maliciousness.

"Are we in the fire caves?" Dukat asked timidly.

"No. That is where your body is resting. And we could let your mind rest there too. It would be better for you if you endured the eternity of confinement while unconscious. To sleep forever is no bad fate..."

"I don't want to sleep forever; I want to live!" Dukat exclaimed passionately.

The Pah-wraith laughed scornfully. "You have such a feeble intellect. Must I spell it out for you? The game is over. There is no more life. *They* have won, and taken it all. We are used to floating in time for eons, but you are not. I would say that it would drive you mad, but you are mad already, are you not?"

Dukat was too preoccupied with his own safety to react to the insult. "Father, I beg of you, don't hurt me. I never wanted to let you down. I'm truly sorry. Forgive me?"

The Pah-Wraith was unmoved by his appeal. "We are angered by incompetence Dukat, especially when it costs us our freedom..."

The Pah-wraith waved his hand. The light went away and Dukat found himself... transformed. He could no longer see or feel his body, he had no control of his own movements. He was now just a minute entity. A floating particle.

"What's happening to me?" Dukat cried out in real terror, and then he felt a moment of relief to find that he still had the ability to speak, at least.

"Do you know what frustration is?" the voice of the Pah-wraith sounded close in his ear. "The essence of frustration is to desire something intensely but to know that you can never have it, no matter how hard you try or how long you wait. What do you desire, Dukat?"

"To be free," Dukat said firmly.

"Yes, you want that. And if you were free, what would you plot and scheme and connive for?" The voice was not as close as it had been before.

"I... I'd work for you, of course. I'd do whatever you asked of me."

"Liar!" the voice spat at him, further away still. "There are three things that you want desperately. You want to gain Sisko's respect - but he will never respect you. You want to win Kira's heart - but she will never love you. And you want to rule Bajor again - but you will never do so."

"Why are you telling me these things?" Dukat cried out furiously.

"Because I want you to understand why we are doing this."

"Doing what?"

"Frustration is much worse when you are constantly reminded of what you cannot have," the Pah-wraith said tauntingly. His voice seemed so distant now that Dukat had to struggle to hear it. "Your body stays with us, but your spirit will spend eternity in another place..." The voice faded away.

"Wait! Wait, please!" Dukat screamed. But there was no answer. He was left alone in the dark.

Dukat was so scared that he wanted to cry, but he couldn't cry. He was no longer a corporeal being. The Pah-wraith had separated his mind from his body. Was this hell? How could it have come to this; how could he have been sent to this solitary place? He had only wanted to serve the Pah-wraiths, to do the right thing for them and for his people...

"HELP ME!" He yelled, but he was ignored.

Suddenly, Dukat found that he could see again. But this was no ordinary form of vision for it was all around him. Total 360 degree sight. Below him, he saw a dark and highly polished surface. After a few moments, he was able to identify it as a desk. Above and to the side there were grey walls, doors, a computer... it was Sisko's office on DS9! But it was not Sisko who occupied the chair of command now. Colonel Kira, looking more lovely than Dukat had ever seen her, sat calmly at the desk. She was less than a metre away from him.

"Nerys? Nerys, can you hear me?" He called out with sudden hope. But Kira did not lift her head and look at him. She did not react to his voice at all.

Dukat wasn't ready to give up. If his spirit was now here on DS9, then perhaps he could find some way to contact the crew. They had always been a compassionate bunch; even Kira was too merciful for her own good. If they knew that he was trapped, every effort would be made to rescue him. And so he spoke and begged and shouted for hours on end but Kira showed no sign that she was aware of his presence. She simply kept on working.

Dukat's sense of optimism faded away. He watched helplessly as Kira left the office and turned off the lights. She was absent for quite some time. He tried to convince himself that she knew he was here and was just ignoring him for a while as a punishment. But really, he knew this wasn't true. His later appeals could have been disregarded, but not the first one. She would have instinctively reacted in some way when he first spoke out. His sudden arrival would have been a shock to her, and this would have shown on her face.

Dukat had no way of measuring the passing hours. He had only his own thoughts to keep him company. He mourned the loss of his body and his freedom. He was terrified of everything. He wished he were dead.

After what seemed like weeks but was probably just one night, Kira returned. Another crew member, a man that Dukat didn't know, was with her. Dukat could not hear their conversation, but just watching them talk - mouths moving, hands gesturing - made him long to be whole again. Even spending the rest of his life in a Federation prison would be so much better than this.

Something totally unexpected took place after the man left the office. Major Kira sat down at her desk and then stared right in his direction for the first time. Dukat called out to her again, his hopes of rescue instantly resurrected. And for a second or two it seemed as if these hopes might be justified. For Colonel Kira was smiling at him and speaking to him, although he could not hear the words. Tremendously excited, he watched as her arm moved towards him.

Dukat did not feel the touch of Kira's hand but there were other changes. The first thing was that most of his vision was blacked out. A few blades of light shone though in narrow slits, unbearably sharp against the darkness which bordered them. And then, unbelievably, he started to move. He couldn't feel the movement but he knew it was happening, because his eyesight was briefly blurred and the objects around him were at a different angle in relation to himself afterwards. He was immensely relieved when he was still again. Not because the movement had been unpleasant, but because it emphasised how little control he had over his own fate.

Her fingers, Dukat realised; the light was shining through her fingers. Kira was surrounding him totally; he was actually in her hands. How could this be if he had no physical presence of his own? Dukat did not have to wait long for an answer. Something changed; he was now looking at Kira from two angles, inside and outside simultaneously. The inside aspect was the same partial darkness that he had seen before. But from the outside, he saw - ah no, not this - Kira was holding a baseball. Sisko's round baseball. Her hands were wrapped around it. Wrapped around *him*.

As the full horror of the Pah-wraith's punishment was revealed to Dukat, the outside view was taken away and he was trapped inside the baseball again. He was moved once more, placed back on the baseball stand, and then Kira took her hands away. Dukat now saw exactly why the Pah-wraith had chosen this place, this object, this woman. He understood why the entity had spoken of frustration. And he knew that he would never be free of it.

Dukat's long scream of terror and anguish did not disturb the tranquillity of the corporeal universe in the slightest. Only the Pah-wraith heard him, and they were satisfied with their work.

THE END