So I've been lurking in the fic community for more years than I'd care to count. Decided it was about time I gave something back. So, here it is. A contribution to the growing fic base of the best show on TV since the X-Files in its season 1-4heyday. Not for one minute deluding myself with the quality as there are some phenomenal writers out there, but it may divert you for a few minutes. Hope you like.

Any and all comments welcome, constructive criticism preferred, but if you must flame, at least be original please ;-)


Chapter 1

He watched her on the monitor from the infrared camera. The darkness in her cell was complete, he doubted she even knew he was watching her. But he saw her, sat against the back wall of the cell, arms hugging her knees to her chest, head down, resting on her knees. The cell was cold on his request and he smiled as he could see her shivering, he knew she was freezing, she was wet and only had her tank and shorts on as that's all she had when they grabbed her from her bed. The only thing he couldn't see on the camera were the bruises, and the cuts, and the blood that covered her from head to toe. But he knew they were there as he'd been the one to inflict most of the damage, with a little help from some friends.

Poor little Starbuck, not safe, even on a Battlestar, but then the crew of the Pegasus could always be relied upon to help out, for the right price.

After three months of playing with her, taunting her, beating her, starving her, messing with her head, he was about to start his next plan. He gathered the needle loaded with her first shot and signalled the two guards to open up the door.

As soon as she saw the needle she knew what they were going to do to her.

"Frak you, you cant do this to me, you can't do this!" Kara Thrace had not been this panicked in a long, long time. The destruction of the 12 Colonies, her crash landing, her experiences on Caprica retrieving the Arrow, even realising the frakheads on the Pegasus had betrayed her unwittingly to the Cylons had not made her heart pound, her pulse race like this.

This situation had gone from bad to worse, cut off from the Fleet, in pain, without hope of escape. After three attempts they'd hobbled her and broken her ankle. She hadn't thought anything could make it more dire, but she had been so wrong.

As the powerful, muscle bound thugs who had become her personal torturers came at her again she mustered the little remaining strength she had to attempt to fight them off. But, unlike in the beginning, she knew she could not win this round. Deprived of adequate food and water, of sleep, of daylight, the infamous Starbuck was at the very end of her rope, and she was about to be yanked off the end of it.

After a brief struggle they had her down on the ground again, face pressed into the unforgiving metal floor, arms cruelly twisted behind her and held down with one of the bruisers kneeling on her back. Weakened as she was and unable to get free she still desperately tried to buck them off her back, succeeding only in getting her arms pulled higher, on the verge of dislocation, eliciting a yelp from Kara, one she tried so hard not to give voice too.

And then she felt it, a sharp prick in her bare shoulder, the needle pumping the drug into her system, burning its way along her veins.

As the thugs let her go and retreated to the door of her cell, Kara painfully scrambled to the corner, back against the wall, legs pulled tight into her body, glaring at the Cylon who had become her ultimate nightmare.

"This is for your own good Starbuck. You told me that humans have no choice. You have to suffer, you have to feel pain….you have to die. Maybe this will ease your pain? Maybe you'll start answering my questions?"

As she looked at him , Kara couldn't believe she'd once prayed for his soul. Putting everything into a snarl she replied in as steady a voice as she could, "Don't frakking count on it. You say this was written, that we've been here before? Well, I suggest you check your history 'cause I'm damned sure I'd never give in to you, in any incarnation, for any reason."

The Cylon chuckled at her, "Oh Starbuck, if only you knew…you'd never have fought in the first place." And with that, Leobon Conroy stepped back out of the cell, slammed the door and left Kara in the pitch black of what had become her home over the last three months.

Left in the darkness once again, Kara could feel herself unwittingly start to fade out. As she slipped down the wall she turned to the only hope she had left. She began to pray, "Lords of Kobol, please, please hear my prayer….".