Chapter Two

"Don't you think you've had enough?" Cain whispered. She held the whip in her hands, but she hadn't yet struck.

Gina shook her head, but stopped quickly. Her neck was so stiff and moving it at all hurt. "Barely feel a thing." She said.

Cain let out a loud laugh. Gina must have looked pitiful, her face hurt so much that she could barely come up with a sarcastic smile to accompany her brave words, she only managed a grimace.

Cain looked over the wounds Gina had already sustained. She didn't want to hit her, to cause her more pain. But she couldn't let her emotions rule her. Gina was not a human who could really feel pain, she was just a machine programmed to. The pain of that drove her to raise the whip.

"Who else is a Cylon spy?" Cain said icily.

"I don't know," Gina lied.

The whip lashed through the air, and Gina heard its sound before she felt the pain erupting on her back, the whip smacking open wounds that she had gotten less than a half an hour before from the interrogator. She didn't know if it hurt more because Cain was delivering the blows, or because she was already injured.

"Pity." Cain lashed her again.

Gina's chest heaved as Cain's third, and then fourth blow hit her, and she let out a whimper.

The whip was soaked in blood, and looking over Gina's back, Cain could see that Gina couldn't take much more. The interrogator had done a good job. Tortured her to the point where, really there wasn't much left to be done, to be injured or broken, without really breaking something. Cain lowered the whip. She would have to punish her some other way. That's what this really was. Not an interrogation, but a punishment.

Cain leaned over Gina, hand outstretched to smack her. Then she saw the bruise on her cheek, which had a cut through it, as if she had been punched, then had the skin slit open over the bruise with a knife. She had seen the wound before of course, but hadn't really thought about it until now, with her face so close to Gina's. "I thought I told them not to mess up your pretty face," she reached out a finger and ran it along Gina's chin.

Gina flinched.

That stung. Cain's eyes widened. Gina had never recoiled from her touch before, not even when she had slapped her on the face moments (about ten) before. She traced her finger over the cut and Gina inhaled sharply. Cain felt something else as she touched her, power, a certain sense of control. Cain moved her hand back behind her ear, to her locks of hair, feeling a broken sense of longing as she ran her fingers gently through the now sweaty hair, damp from torture, remembering running her fingers through it when they were in bed together.

Gina was holding her breath. Allowing small amounts of air to escape in small breaths. Her back stung everywhere, her body was bruised, maybe even had some cracked ribs, but when Cain touched her like that it brought all of her attention to it, as if all the nerves in her body dulled and were only brought to life under her hand. She stared down at at Cain's boots. A single tear slid down her cheek.

Cain placed a finger and thumb underneath Gina's chin and gently lifted her face. Gina met her brown eyes, hard, but a tad softer. Cain gently wiped away Gina's tear. "I don't want to hurt you," Cain said genuinely. "I miss you."

Gina inhaled sharply, "I miss you too."

Cain pulled Gina's head onto her shoulder, and wrapped her arms around Gina's shoulders in an embrace, trying to avoid touching the blood.

Gina melted into the strong embrace, and cried onto her shoulder. She was traumatized by the abuse she had faced at the hands of the interrogator, and at the hands of Cain, it was impossible not to seek comfort in her lover's arms, because of the vulnerability that bond triggered. Gina had allowed herself to get far to close to Cain, and this had compromised her mission.

Cain's strong hand held the back of Gina's head firmly. "You understand," Cain said slowly, "That I cannot betray my people. You would understand."

Gina shook her head, despite the fact that moving it hurt. "I wasn't going to kill you, I wouldn't have done it."

Cain hugged her more tightly, but still gently. "Please, just tell me the truth, tell me about the Cylons."

"I will," Gina lied through her tears. Trapped in Cain's embrace she could no longer escape her emotions. She could no longer force herself to wish to download into a new body, to allow herself a chance at love that wasn't doomed by fate. She latched back onto the love she had, she didn't want to love anyone else the way that she loved Cain.

Suddenly both of Cain's hands were in Gina's hair, and she was kissing her. A dominating kiss, she pushed her tongue into Gina's mouth, but Gina pushed back just as desperately.

Cain reached down to tug at the shackles around Gina's feet, but she needed the key.

She broke the kiss, and looked into Gina's eyes with an unspoken promise, stroking her hair. She stood with a slight smirk as she looked down on Gina, then she turned to retrieve the key.

When Cain left the room Gina started shaking. Shaking with desire, shaking with fear. She loved someone who had the power to kill her, someone who did, but wouldn't, someone who wanted to sink their claws into her skin in revenge as much as in pleasure. And yet, somehow, she had never felt more passionately towards Cain, more attracted to her. It was as if the fear of losing her had broken some kind of a dam in her brain, and let loose every single passionate feeling she had managed to stuff away, though of course, she had never been able to banish all thoughts of love for Cain.

It couldn't last though. It had to end in death. If it didn't, it would end a much worse way.