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Super big thanks to Evilclone, Raina, Airam4U, Ana Sedai, Katholz, Darkfinder, Eklektik, Artemis1000, and everyone else who read "What Heroes are Made Of" I really appreciate all the interest and feedback. Your input really gave me the umph to dive back into this.

I'll try to update as quickly as possible….allowing time for the season finale to air. :) I'm going to weave the story in through it since it will allow me to bring Leoben back without undue contortions to my brain. I could've kissed RM when I realized where he was taking this. Good Cylons, bad Cylons. The possibilities are endless. :)

Warning: some angst, fluff, betrayals, and religious questioning to come. Enjoy!

The Cylons were created by Man
They evolved
They rebelled
There are many copies
And they have a plan

47,850 survivors
In search of a home
Called Earth

Heal me

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A gasp.

Painful cold air reaching right inside his lungs and ripping the will to breathe straight out of him.

"Breathe." Someone whispers in comfort.

"Nya?" Saying her name shocks him into taking another breath and then a third. "Nya!"

Leoben thrashes inside of the birthing tank as gentle hands hold him down. The download is complete but the memories, the memories are crashing inside of him as he relives it all again. 'You're dying.' – 'Just this once.' - the airlock – her – the Colonial refugees – archery on Sagittaron – Nya wounded – choices – and a voice that only two men could hear.

The words rip out of his throat. "Wait for me!"

His eyes snap open and focus on the lights all around him. He can't help but twitch as he sees the copies waiting all around him. Three identical Leobens stare down at him with a black man that he doesn't recognize and another unidentifiable male Cylon. Leoben struggles to remember their names but he seems to have lost some things in the download. He hasn't lost the fear of being found out and clamps his mouth shut tightly before he can cry out again as he convulses with pain. They wait patiently for him. The pain will subside – it always does.

"Nya?" One of the other Leobens asks. "The pilot on board the Journey?"

"Yes." He says hoarsely. "We were shot."

The black man reaches over him and undoes the straps on his wrists. "What took you so long? You were supposed to download over six months ago."

"There were complications." The copy helps him sit up as the viscous birthing fluid drains slowly off his chest and back into the vat.

"Complications." Leoben is still having difficulty hearing his voice echoed back at him. This is from the copy furthest from him, dressed in a scarlet shirt so bright that it burns at Leoben's eyes.

"We continue to have more and more of these…complications."

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One month later….

Tom Zarek isn't exactly hurrying as he searches the lower decks of the Astral Queen, but there is something visceral about the bowels of the ship that gives him the chills. Too much machinery in too close. He doesn't trust it like he used to.

He jumps as something crashes in the space ahead of him. Sparks shoot out of an open vent and he breaks into a run.

"What are you doing!"

A smoke-covered pilot-turned-engineer emerges from the crawlspace and pats the last bit of fire off of her coveralls. Her hair is twisted back in a ponytail and the smudges of ash on her cheeks highlight the grey of her eyes.

Nya Reece looks much different from the first time Tom met her, puking her guts out in the Galactica's head. They share scars from that first day and a sense of sadness that both of them have struggled to overcome. The death of Leoben Conoy, their Leoben Conoy, resonated deeply within them. For Tom it was a reminder of all the terrible things he had done and for Nya it was the horrible truth of loving a monster. The scars inside are much wider than those they wear on their skin.

"Is my ship on fire?" He asks.

"Fire? Frak!" Nya lunges back inside and he can hear the nozzle of a flame retardant canister being cracked open.

He helps pull her back out as the cloud of smoke thickens and then subsides. They collapse on the floor and he ignores the smudges that collect on his suit. She glances over at him and starts to giggle, moments later neither of them can hold it in, and laugh until Tom is clutching his stomach and trying unsuccessfully to give her a stern look.

"Why are we laughing?" He finally asks.

"Your ship is a piece of crap." Nya snorts as she tries to control herself.

"It's the best I could manage." This sends them off into another paroxysm of laughter. They both know how Tom ended up being Commander of a prison ship crewed by convicts.

She leans against him and breathes deeply to hold off any more laughter. "Explain to me again why I'm spending my days off doing maintenance on the Queen."

"Because I'm a fabulous host."

Nya smiles but Tom sees the sudden wash of sadness fill her eyes. He reaches out to touch her hand, resting on the smooth warmth of her skin, and knows that he hates Leoben more today than any other day. Every time that Nya is set to move on, the memory of the past holds her down.

"And because I need you here." It's said a little more forcefully than he meant to say it. He softens his tone. "As a friend."

"How did your meeting go?"

"Adama."

She doesn't need him to elaborate on that. The Journey was late to the Fleet, but she's heard more than she ever needed to know about what transpired in their absence. Zarek's battles with Adama and Roslin are nigh legendary, but Nya is one of the few who also knows the truth of Kobol.

In the days following Leoben's death he stayed with her to comfort her. And in those days, Tom discovered a confidante in Nya, like the one he'd lost when Meier died. She trusted him and he her, despite where she'd lent her services.

"That's not why I'm down here."

"What?"

"Come with me."

He leads her back through the belly of the Astral Queen to one of the aft cargo compartments.

"If you've broken something else on this ship, I don't want to know." Nya laughs as they step around a pile of equipment in the corridor. "Galactica doesn't give me enough leave to rebuild this heap."

"Nothing else is broken." Tom assures her. "At least that I know of."

"Then what is going on?" Nya protests lightly as he makes to cover her eyes.

"Worried?" He teases lightly. "You're a Fleet Raptor pilot now. Rough, tough….what's the rest of the saying?"

"You're saying it wrong. It's 'Raptor recon -- penetrates deeper, stays longer and carries a bigger load.' Come on, I didn't make it up."

"Welcome to life in the military." Zarek steers her around the last obstacle and towards the door. He opens it with one hand and lets her step inside. "But maybe this will make up for it, Archer."

Nya Reece frowns slightly at the use of her call sign. It reminds her that her life has changed so much that's its nearly unrecognizable.

She couldn't stay on the Journey after what happened. The crew's eyes followed her everywhere and she could still sense Leoben in every hallway and the remnants of his handiwork. There was nothing else she could do but leave. Captain Adama had offered her the chance to move to Galactica but in the heat of battle she couldn't pull the trigger. Couldn't look out her cockpit window and wonder if Leoben was the Cylon in the fighter across from her. They'd yanked her from the Vipers and sent her to a Raptor, but there were times when she wondered what exactly she was doing fighting in a war that she didn't want to fight.

Tom wasn't the only person who seemed to understand. She'd met Helo and the Chief and the others who'd loved Sharon Valerii, but they didn't really connect with her - for them, Sharon was still alive, even if it was a copy.

Someone from Sagittaron could understand. Someone who didn't look askance at her whispered prayers or misunderstand what they meant to her. Breathing was necessary for life. And to Nya, so was her culture, even if it was gone.

"What?" But the question dies in her throat as bittersweet emotions swamp her and threaten to spill forth. "Tom?"

He guides her further into the room as her feet fail to guide her within the sanctuary. "I shot an arrow into the air/ It fell to earth I know not where/ I breathed a song into the air/ It fell to earth I know not where."

She finishes it for him, a childhood poem from home, as she looks in awe upon what he's built for her. "Long afterward in an oak/ I found the arrow still unbroke/ And the song from beginning to end/ I found again in the heart of my friend."

One act done in friendship begins to heal the wound inside of her. Nya lets the memory of Leoben slip away as she steps onto the archery range and reaches for a bow.

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The archery poem I found was uncredited.

Chapter 2 preview. When Galactica discovers the Pegasus, Nya gains access to something that might explain just what Leoben meant by 'the serpent in the garden'.