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༄ chapter forty nine
-ˋˏ CASSIUS ˎˊ-
TWO WEEKS into their trial-turned-vacation, the Crynns felt they had finally seen everything New Vulcan had to offer. The entire time of travel had been a bit of a downer. Each time they passed a random plot of land while taking a train across the dwarf planet, Spock took the liberty to point and tell them what might've been there, had Vulcan not been destroyed. Sacred plateaus, monstrous rock formations, a city or two - nothing on New Vulcan was ever good enough for him.
Of course, Vera knew this was his not-so-silent way of grieving. Vulcan had been his home, his childhood, and to have to allow it to die without getting to see it in depth one last time must have been tearing into him. Nevertheless, there was a certain way he was describing it, acting as if Vulcan was far more magnificent than Earth and baby-talking about the history of his people to her, that had begun to make Vera tick. New Vulcan gave way to the reemergence of the cocky, Vulcan-centric man that Vera had hated so at the beginning of their missions together.
It wasn't just Spock's Vulcan-centric attitude that had Vera pissed. It was every little thing, from the humidity to the odd looks people on the street gave her to even poor Nath's need for constant reassurance. She wasn't sure why, but just how New Vulcan sparked Spock's worst qualities, so too did it Vera's.
She would sit in her room or on the train sulking, her bangs clung to her forehead with sweat and her leg bouncing on its own account, and scowl. Vera didn't feel like doing anything, and everything annoyed her. Having resorted to even locking herself in the bathroom, Vera refused about a week into the vacation to leave the room at all. Even she had no clue as to why she was acting like this. The only thoughts in her head at any given moment were her father and her job.
Spock, as any loving partner would be, was concerned for Vera. He started to see a shift in her behavior shortly after the evaluation. She was beginning to act like how she described Cassius Lemuria. He had no one to speak about this thought to - not Nath, not his father, not anyone back on Earth. The only person he'd explained his concerns to was Spock Prime.
"Oh yes, I feared the day would come where you, too, would experience this," he had replied with a shake of the head, "You see, I went through this with my Vera as well. Your Vera is going through what Doctor McCoy - my doctor - called 'inherited mania'. It is not an official term, but was instead used to describe the exact situation Vera is going through: she is slowly beginning to inherit her father's madness.
"Cassius Lemuria is not only a manipulative and powerful, self-centered individual, but a dangerous individual. In my time, shortly after Vera was named Ambassador, he planned an assassination attempt on his own daughter. Simple jealousy turned legitimately harmful. He was medically insane. We had thankfully figured all of this out before Vera caused just as much damage, but you may not be so lucky, if you do not act quickly.
