Abstract
(written by shadowserenity and carrkicksdoor)
Rated: PG
Codes: Kara/Lee, Six, Gaius, Cylon creepiness
Word count: 1, 404
Spoilers: S1
Summary: "Everyone you know is a Cylon, Starbuck." Six smiled gently. "I thought you were religious, smart - at least for an abstract."
Extra features: a special inside look at Abstract at the end of the page!

One, two, three. She wasn't sure why she'd always get to twenty and start over, but by this point, she'd gotten to twenty eight times and her arms were shaking from exertion. Maybe other pilots were watching the illustrious Starbuck push herself to the limit from the other equipment pieces in the gym and wondering what the hell she was doing. She didn't care. It didn't matter to her anymore.

If she concentrated on the movement at the corner of her eye, she bet she could see a rookie staring at her, mouth agape. They'd all been like that, once. Hell, she'd gazed at portraits of Stinger, Luminal, Icarus and especially, Husker - Gods of the air, the masters of the most accomplished. She'd watched the senior officers when they weren't looking, just to gaze upon those who'd really been there. The ones that knew what it was really like.

She'd been a damned idiot back in those days, that much she knew for certain. They all knew that now, if all were she and Lee and Helo because they were the only ones who remembered what it was like to be a rookie. So this is what life is now, she thought. One memory after another.

She tightened her grip on the bar above her, choking the blood from her hands until they turned white, and stared at the sight for a long time, transfixed by the brilliance of the burn and the pain. She continued to stare until the room spun and light faded. The bar slid from Kara's fingers - sweat, she figured at first - and locked millimetres above her chest. She blinked, met the blonde Cylon's gaze.

"Hello, Starbuck," she said, the Cylon's voice dripping from her mouth the way her blood had dripped from her wounds when Starbuck had killed her on Caprica with the arrow. "Have you missed me? I've missed you."

"What the frak are you doing here? This is my existence. Go and get your own."

"Very good, Starbuck. You caught on much faster than other people. I'm all in your mind. I will be, for a long time." She dragged a crimson nail down Starbuck's face, gently, almost lovingly. "But if you like, I can take on a more pleasing form. It serves our purposes for this transition to be as easy as possible."

Kara pushed Six's hand away and wrenched the bar up and back into place. She was on her feet a moment later, glaring at Six predatorily. Movement caught her eye and another figure emerged from the shadows.

"I do love her. I've always loved her in every life."

Kara felt her hands shake. "You will never convince me that he is a Cylon. Not him. Not ever."

"Everyone you know is a Cylon, Starbuck." Six smiled gently. "I thought you were religious, smart - at least for an abstract."

"The Cylons have no gods," Starbuck spat back in her face. "You have no concept of religion. And he--" she pointed her finger accusingly at the figure approaching from the shadows "is most certainly not one of your god's angels."

Six swept a hand across the bar, stroking the metal. She moved her head to the side, the movement refined and elegant, and it looked as though she would glance at their third party but her gaze was unmoving. She'd always unnerved Kara. "You're a Cylon, Kara. An abstract, a bygone Cylon, but in the last cycle, you were a Cylon."

Kara felt someone brush against her arm, another Cylon. "I flushed you out an airlock, Starbuck."

Starbuck felt her blood run cold. "I don't believe you. You couldn't do that to me, Lee. I know you better than that." She turned her furious gaze on the Cylon woman before her. "And I know you better than this. The only person--the only thing going out an airlock is you."

Kara felt hot breath against the exposed flesh of her neck. "It's humorous, Kara. Listen to me. God intervened and rearranged the divine plan in a way only he could. I skipped a cycle. Instead of becoming an abstract, I became what I had been before. I became one of God's newer children - precious and cherished." His hand ran down her arm, enough to make her shiver. "But then, Kara, you've always been more than the sum of your parts." He leaned in and kissed her neck, his tongue electrifying. "I do love you. I've always loved you in every life." His gaze drifted to Six, his shining blue eyes meeting her wooden, jealous gaze. "I've always loved her."

For the first time in her life, Kara jumped away from him. Jumped away from Lee Adama, or what she thought had once been Lee Adama and moved behind a piece of exercise equipment in a piteous attempt to protect herself. "You are lying. He is Lee Adama. He's the old man's son. He's Zak's brother." Her voice almost broke. "He's my friend. He's Apollo."

Gaius appeared at her side, her defence counsel. "Lieutenant Thrace, how selfish of you. Never knew you could be so truly selfish. She has just damned all humanity, destroyed all our values and your only concern is for Lee Adama. He's killed you a million times. Loved you and still killed you. Oh, yes, so terribly amusing, so terribly Cylon of him. Tell him to shove his Cylon morality, Lieutenant. Tell him you can't love him even though we're all abstracts."

"Shut up, Gaius," Starbuck said, finally given another target to be angry at. "You don't have a dog in this fight, so you can stay the frak out of it."

"Kara." He extended his hand, palm flat, a look of trust crossing his features. He stepped forward and cupped her cheek, his lips parted and he kissed her gently. She closed her eyes and let him burn away all the lies.

The two Cylons - the twin children of God - looked on. "She won't say your name this time," Six said quietly.

Apollo watched, something akin to pain in his eyes. "Abstracts are imperfect. Perhaps if my faith is strong enough in this life, we will both be born again as children of God." His last words choked off as Gaius manoeuvred Starbuck against the wall and Six turned her gaze away.

"This life will hurt you, Eleven." Six closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her face. "That love will hurt you, brother."

Apollo reached out, a god in the form of a child of God, to touch Kara's hair, her shoulder. He wanted her--her--and he would give up everything in this life for her. His fingers skimmed along her skin and she vanished--gone. Six shook her head. "I did warn you."

"Let the hurt come, Six." Apollo clenched a fist. "Let the hurt of the Divine into your soul."

Kara shot up in her bunk, fast enough that she didn't have time to avoid the contact of her head with the top of Racetrack's bunk. Her heart pounded as the quiet bunkroom around her continued to sleep. Across the room, she could see Apollo roll over, still asleep and throw his arm over his eyes in the same way he'd done--his mother had said--since he was a child.

He is so human, Kara thought in the next second without hesitation. He was too damn human to be anything else. And they weren't anything else - because that would be wrong, because that would mean shredding every single belief into pieces and scooping their ruined philosophies into her hands, depositing them far away, in the cold of space, anywhere, anything just not to be wrong like that.

She shivered, slipping out of the bunk, her eyes still on him. She wanted to curl up next to him and revel in his warmth. Feel his arms wrap around her and his fingers trace lazy patterns on her stomach and feel his breath warm the back of her neck as they drifted off to sleep.

But instead, she turned and headed for the showers to wash the dream from her, with every bit of Gaius and the Cylon Apollo and the Cylon woman to cleanse where they'd touched her skin away. To cleanse these thoughts from her mind.

But the water was cold. She felt abstract.

(Inside Abstract):
Apollo is Number Eleven because 11 is said to be an unlucky number.
The person brushing Kara's shoulder, in my mind, was supposed be to Leoben, but the next sentence was carrkicksdoor's turn and she's a devout Kara/Lee shipper! Don't say I never wanted Kara/Leoben!
The Gaius/Kara kiss was actually written out of a mistake on my part. Instead of saying "Lee", I said "he" in the kiss sentence and carrkicksdoor thought I meant Gaius. She ran with it beautifully, however, so we left it.
This fic was written on Yahoo Instant Messenger and it was a practice run for that. carrkicksdoor and I both agree that we should continue co-writing, so take as you will.