A/N: Within the Vessel 'verse. Set after "Vessel".


"Where did you come from, Cosima?" Sarah asked the sky late at night as she sat on her deck, wrapped in a large, fluffy blanket.

Cosima hummed, sending the stars into tiny vibrations around where she existed, where she managed to hold most of her form in one concentrated area. "I don't know, exactly," she replied, feeling longing accompany her words. That was new. She brushed the strange existence off to the side as she continued, "I've always been here, I think. Maybe I was on Earth once though... but I can't remember."

Sarah shifted down onto her elbows to stare at the sky where she thought Cosima was. She wasn't as perceptive as her daughter when it came to locating Cosima, if Cosima could be humanly located at all, but she was still able to project her words in such a way that, no matter where Sarah was directing them, Cosima still felt warm in receiving them. "I guess that was too much of me to ask, huh?" Sarah laughed slightly, shaking her head at herself.

Cosima felt herself expand at the sound of Sarah's laughter. It was a sound that she had only just begun to hear, but felt like she had been listening to it for as long as she'd been alive. No. For as long as she had been existing. She wasn't alive. She wasn't. So how come being around Sarah made her feel like she knew what breathing felt like?

"Cos?" Sarah spoke after several moments.

That too, that... nickname, as Sarah called it, was new as well. And just as thrilling as Sarah's laugh. "Yeah Sarah?" Cosima replied, feeling happy.

Happy? She.. she shouldn't know what that felt like. That was a human emotion. Cosima only knew about it through her ageless roaming of the earth. She knew what it looked like, what human tones surrounded it, what facial expressions matched it. But... feeling it? She shouldn't be able to feel it.

"This is... nice, y'know?" Sarah stated simply, dropping onto her back with a contented sigh, her eyes roving over the starscape, tracing constellations and searching for Cosima amongst them.

"You don't think you're crazy anymore?" Cosima teased, feeling lighter than she had ever in a long time. Lighter even than when she had somehow managed to travel several centuries into the future, warping from bronze to titanium. From ancient Greece to here. Now. With Sarah.

Sarah laughed again, and Cosima felt the stars flare around her in response. Like she was blushing. "You can't blame me for not believing my daughter at first, can you?" Sarah shrugged, lifting an arm to trace the pattern of the brighter stars above her. "She's at that age, y'know? Kids have amazing imaginations. But... I can see you too, Cosima. I know you're here."

"You know, I...," she shouldn't do this. She shouldn't even think about trying. Something outside of her existence told her it was wrong. That it couldn't be done. That Sarah would die.

As if she were able to sense Cosima's hesitance, Sarah lowered her arm slightly, her fingers drifting apart in her confusion. "Something wrong?"

Cosima felt the stars around her start to buzz angrily, like they knew she was about to attempt something that would mostly certainly mess up the balance of the existence of Earth and Universe. The symphonies of the other planets and comets rose to a crescendo as well, and the clashing arguments of space and sky nearly caused Cosima to begin to implode.

Then, a melody cut through the war, silencing all of them. "Are you still here with me Cosima?"

"Yes!" Cosima bellowed vehemently in a vicious attempt to cut through all the noise.

From the Earth, Sarah saw a light form from the darkness, like some kind of supernova, but with no probable cause. "Cosima...," Sarah whispered, sitting up abruptly in her awe, her jaw dropping open. "You're... you're beautiful."

"Sarah, I...," Cosima felt hot. Like the molecules around her had supercharged and fused together into a new gas giant, brighter and more brilliant than the sun. And yet, somehow much more distant. "Sarah!" she shouted, as the Earth's surface sped backwards away from her, a reverse comet with no gravity to tie her down.

And she fell so far away that the stars became few and far between. Until there was only one star remaining, blinking and bobbing in front of her eyes like the lure of a giant sea monster – beautiful and deadly all at once.

Then, from the light, emanated an echo. "Cosima, what do you think you're doing?"

Disoriented by the sudden cold around her, the sudden absence of Sarah, Cosima could only speak to the immediate thoughts on her mind. "Where is Sarah?" she demanded, "What happened to her, is she hurt-?"

"Stop asking about her," The Light commanded fiercely, "The whole universe heard your thoughts Cosima. To be near a human. Do you know what kind of power you possess? You would kill her! But more than that, the very balance of energy between earth and sky would be thrown into chaos!"

Cosima finally gathered her thoughts to the best of her abilities – even though her mind was still reverberating with the last words she heard Sarah speak; you're beautiful. Cosima.. you're beautiful.

"STOP!" The Light roared, piercing into her consciousness, clearly reading her thoughts. "There is no good way this could possibly end, Cosima. Do not force me to untether you from the earth. It is your galaxy, but the upset you could create by pursuing this.. insane infatuation – it would do more than just kill one human. Do you understand this?"

"Not really, no," Cosima felt herself vibrate in response to his words, her irritation growing.

"You are experiencing human emotions," The Light said after a long pause, during which Cosima felt as if her entire being had been analyzed somehow.

Cosima didn't respond, her inner workings humming in silent affirmation.

"In the event...," The Light started slowly, as if its words were greatly weighted and highly deliberated, "That Sarah survives your touch – a touch from an extension of the cosmos itself – then you will change."

"You're letting me go back to her? To them?" Cosima picked up quickly, glowing more brightly in her excitement.

"Yes. But-" The Light said, its brightness already starting to fade as Cosima started to will herself to return back to Earth, to return back to Sarah's backyard. "One thing you should know, Cosima, before I release you.

"If she and the girl both die by your energy," The Light warned, dimming into the faintest glow, the quietest echo, "Another galaxy shall have to take your place. And you, Cosima... will be destroyed."

Cosima felt The Light's tether to her snap, but she drifted momentarily, a black hole opening up in a chasm in the center of her existence where she might've imagined a human heart to be. She didn't care about being destroyed – not really. She was energy, so her molecules would just get recycled somewhere else altogether, maybe not as one cohesive unit, but still existing. Like she was now. Sarah and Kira, on the other hand, they-

At the mere thought of the mother and her little girl, Cosima found herself to be right back above their backyard without even trying. Your bond with them is strong, I see, The Light's echo drifted in and around the stars that surrounded her, Let's hope it's strong enough.

"It will be," Cosima muttered to herself, "It will be. You'll see. She'll survive. There's something-"

"Cosima?!" Sarah's voice called from the ground, her blanket shed from her shoulders as she paced tight circles around in the shadows of the backyard. "Where did you go?!"

"Sarah!" Cosima summoned a melody, suddenly aware that talking to Sarah, a human, was much different than the invisible conversations that she had with The Light. That the stars had with each other.

Because that's how the universe is supposed to be, my child, The Light hummed, sounding like an old grandfather. Your human comparisons may just be the end of you, Cosima.

Ignoring it, Cosima gathered her song together once more, "Sarah, it's okay! It's okay, I'm back, alright?"

Sarah stopped in her tracks, closing her eyes. As Cosima looked on, Sarah's face turned up and, in the moonlight, a small smile graced her face. "Where did you go?" Sarah asked in a quiet tone that Cosima couldn't quite decipher. Was it pain? Anguish? Fear? Caring?

"I wasn't allowed to stay," Cosima explained, drifting closer to the earth than she had ever drifted before.

Sarah's eyes snapped open. And – there – with the visual aid, Cosima managed to recognize one of the emotions that she had been unable to identify earlier. Fear. "What?! Why can't you stay? Are you – are you.. leaving?" Sarah whispered, her throat choked with the fear that leaked from her eyes.

Summoning more strength, Cosima drifted down into Sarah's backyard, coming down to Sarah's height for the first time ever. She looked even more radiant up close, with the moonlight spilling shadows over the crevices and dips of the bones of her face, the cracks of her lips. "No," Cosima whispered as well, pulling down a single piece of the supernova that she had created in her rage, drawing it closer to the earth from the high reaches of space. "Look, Sarah. I'm right here."

Sarah's eyes turned up to the sky for a brief second, before widening in shock as a star was seemingly pulled down from space, a brilliant white-gold spool of pure light its anchor. An anchor that twisted and spun in lazy spheres at chest height, a mere two feet away from where Sarah stood. "You're.. you're right here. You're.. in front of me," Sarah breathed in shocked awe, lifting her hand in wonder as the piece of Cosima's supernova came to a stop just in front of Sarah's hand.

"I'm here," Cosima breathed, feeling herself to be in awe at the way Sarah's face changed from silver to gold at the light that emanated from part of her being. Then, without any warning, Cosima's light connected with the palm of Sarah's hand.

Cosima felt a powerful surge of energy collide with the center of her being. And everything went black.