A.N.-Here's the next part. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with it, but I'm anxious to get to the next part, and if I keep editing this, I'll end up throwing it out completely. Reviews are welcome, and if someone is willing to Beta, I'll be forever in debt to them.
Copper.
Everything tasted of copper. Acrid. Metallic. Stifling. She couldn't remember far back enough to taste anything else.
Red. Everywhere she looked it was red. Dripping blood from her mouth, her hands, everywhere.
The sound of a whip flying through the air hit her ears moments before she felt the sting and heard the ripping of flesh on her backside. She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, opening an old wound, as she tried her hardest not to scream.
They were being particularly brutal today. Usually they would stop after a few hours, but not today. She thought they were somewhere around the sixth or seventh.
Suddenly the pain stopped, and she felt a cool touch on her chin as her face was turned toward the Boomer cylon. "Just tell him what he want's to know, and all your pain could go away."
Looking into the cylons eyes, Kara could almost believe the sincerity she saw in them, until she focused on the pain.
Drawing back her head, she opened her mouth and launched a wad of bloody spit at the Boomer model. "Go frak yourself."
Almost instantly she felt her knees shake as the tazer was once again applied, the only thing keeping her upright the chains attached to her arms.
"Have it your way."
As Boomer walked away, she couldn't help but give a slight tremble of her lips as the girl finally broke down when they began the electroshock on her.
Her screams pierced the ship, echoing off the walls.
-----
She opened her mouth to scream once again, only to find the sound lodged in her throat as she opened her eyes.
The cell was gone. The cylons were gone. Instead, she lay on a bed, staring into the eyes of a little blonde girl, Leobon standing to the right of her.
"Kara? Are you okay? You were having a nightmare," Leobon said, looking at her innocently.
Kara jumped up, spinning around in a circle, trying to figure out what had just happened. A nightmare? "Where am I?"
"You're in the apartment...where you've been the past three months. Kara, what's wrong?"
Kara ignored him, running from room to room looking for the torture instruments, tormentors, anybody to prove that she wasn't hallucinating. What the frak was going on?
Gods, she was losing her mind.
----
"We're losing power in our main thrusters, sir. We won't be able to last much longer," Helo's voice rang out amidst the explosions occurring all around them.
"We knew the risks. Keep fighting, we need to give these people a fighting chance," Adama yelled.
"Yes, sir."
Just as another nuke was about to hit the Galactica, something hit it, causing it to explode.
"Sir, it's the Pegasus," Helo yelled, excitement evident in his voice.
"God damnit, Lee," Adama muttered.
As fighters began to fly back in, the Pegasus held the Cylons at bay, giving the Galactica enough time to jump away. "Thank you, Lee."
----
Lee jumped out of the raptor to be greeted by his father.
"You picked a hell of a time to show up, son," Adama said by way of greeting.
Lee grinned. "Well, I had to make a bit of an entrance."
Adama smiled, pulling his son into his arms. As they separated, they were greeted by everyone else vying for the Admiral's attention.
As the hype began to die down, Lee noticed someone was missing. Looking towards Anders, he saw that the man was alone. Where is Starbuck? he wondered. Looking towards his father, he could see the same thought on the other man's mind. They might not have parted in the best of terms, but she was family.
Adama turned towards Tyrol. "Chief? Where's Lt. Thrace?"
Tyrol hesitated. "She was taken a few days after the Cylons arrived, sir. We looked for her during the escape, but she wasn't in the detainment center. We don't even know for sure if she's alive." Tyrol paused. "I'm sorry."
Lee felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Starbuck couldn't be dead. She was too damn stubborn to die.
Looking at the faces around him, he could see the shock in a few others' faces as well. Starbuck was infamous for being one tough bitch. She thrived on it. She wasn't supposed to go down like this. She was supposed to die in a viper, doing what she loved.
Adama walked over to his son. "Lee?"
Lee looked up at his father. "I..."
"I know son."
"She can't be dead, dad. She just can't."
Adama was silent. He didn't want to believe it either, but the truth was they had no way of knowing for sure. Even if she was still alive, they didn't know where to begin searching, or how. It wasn't as if they could radio a Basestar and ask if they could take a poke around for a missing pilot. "Lee..."
Lee looked at his father, at the defeat in his eyes. "I can't believe it. You're just going to give up, aren't you?"
"Lee..."
"She's been a better daughter to you than I've ever been a son. You love her more than anyone else on this ship. How can you just leave her?"
"She wouldn't want us to risk the fleet looking for her. She'd never forgive herself."
Lee shook his head. "We did it once, what's so different this time?" But even as he said that, Lee knew his father was right. It was too soon after the rescue mission. So many were already dead. Kara wouldn't want them to go looking for her. Even so, he couldn't help but feel like he was failing her in some way.
"Lee?" Lee looked over at Dee. My wife, he said to himself. He knew what she was thinking. It'd been a long standing feud between the two of them, his relationship with Starbuck.
Lee let out a sigh. He could feel the defeat and despair filling him. "Let's go find a place to bunk down."
I'm so sorry Kara. Please forgive me.
