Kara's day definitely didn't improve when she got the results back. She'd promised herself that she wasn't going back down to the brig again, but wound up doing it anyway.

"Did you get the answers you were hoping for?" Erin smugly asked when she saw her come into the brig. Kara chose not to answer.

"What are you doing here? No, I've got one better than that: how are you here? Because I wasn't in that frakking Farm long enough ago for you to exist."

"For humans," Erin replied with a smile. "You'd be amazed what technology can do."

"So you keep skipping along towards adulthood at light-speed and then what? Does it slow down? Or are you supposed to have a lifespan of a month?"

"Our destiny will be fulfilled," was her only answer.

Lachel was quietly sitting on her bed, watching her 'sister'. "Does that go for you, too?" Kara asked her. "You are allowed to speak, you know."

"D-Destiny is what drives everything. You, me, her…"

Erin rolled her eyes. "Her human bitch was in the radiation too long. Messed her up in the head."

Kara smirked. "Price you pay for being Farm babies."

"You can't fight fate, Kara. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. You can't ignore your role in that."

"Don't start quoting scripture to me."

"Why not, Mother?" Kara's fist was itching to shoot forward and make contact with her grinning face, but she held her temper in check.

"If they had actually knocked me up with you," she told the little girl, "I would have killed us both."

Erin laughed. "Don't you think that they thought of that themselves?"

"If we don't find a reason to keep you here, you're going out an airlock," Kara shot back. "Actually, I might see to it that you wind up going out an airlock no matter what. Do half-breeds upload upon death?" Erin didn't reply, but her wicked grin dimmed by a few watts.

Satisfied, Kara turned and left, but not before catching a glimpse of the haunted hazel eyes that had been watching the interchange from the corner of the cell.

"You're actually going to try interrogating them?" Kara incredulously asked Adama as she, Lee, Tigh, and Roslin sat in the Commander's office. "Their track record with the truth isn't all that great."

"Noted," Adama replied. "But, however they seem, they are children, and they could be useful resources. They should have a chance to prove their lives are worth keeping."

"So what, are we just going to start a Cylon collection down in the brig?" Kara snapped. Lee put a hand on her arm, silently warning her that she needed to get it under control before someone else had to do it audibly. Everyone in the room was aware of the circumstances, but that still only allowed so much leniency for her temper.

"It was the Cylons' plan all along to have them get picked up by the fleet," Roslin pointed out. "Trusting them and keeping them around may be a luxury we can't afford." Adama nodded.

"I know…there are the facts and there are our feelings and right now isn't the time to act rashly. I'm assigning Lieutenant Agathon to oversee the team that talks with them; hopefully that will ensure things don't get out of control. Kara…I could order you to keep your distance, but by Colonial law – "

"Separate them," Kara broke in. "You might actually get a few words out of Lachel that way." She met 'the Old Man's eyes. "I don't want or need to be there." Adama nodded.

Lachel looked up from the lose string she'd pulled from her shirt and started playing with when she heard a loud bang on the other side of her cell. The tray that had held their breakfast earlier in the morning had been thrown through the bars at the wall beyond.

"She promised she would come," Erin muttered. "She can't ignore us; we're part of her."

"That was before," Lachel quietly said.

"What?"

"She promised she would come before she knew the truth."

"She always knew the truth. They all always knew the truth. Something was off – they could sense that, they just wouldn't let themselves admit it."

"She doesn't love you. She never will."

"Love is a weakness. It's human."

"Twelve's child is love," Lachel pointed out.

"Twelve is flawed. We were the first. We survived. Destiny always comes to pass. No one can run from it." Erin smiled to herself, turning away from her sister. "They'll all see. Fate cannot be escaped – we can't let it be."

"What are you going to do?"

"The traitors will pay. They'll learn that they have no choice but to accept what is to come."

Helo was not looking forward to the task to which he'd been assigned. He knew that Kara's experience in the Caprican Farm had bothered her a hell of a lot more than she let on, and having the products of that show up on their ship wasn't making anything easier. He'd heard from the marines that had been guarding the children that Erin was Cylon to the core while Lachel was a mystery. They weren't sure if there really were a few crossed wires in her head or if her 'sister' was simply a force she couldn't overpower.

It was a bit unnerving, the way Erin just stared at the marines as they entered the brig and unlocked her cell. It was almost as though she didn't even see the gun that was trained on her head, making sure she didn't try anything while the marines got Lachel. The younger of the two was pushed as far back into a corner as she could go; the first man who went to grab her couldn't get to budge.

"Get her fingers off the bars," he called to one of the others.

"We're not going to hurt you," Helo tried to explain to her. "We're just going to go talk." Erin studied him for a long moment before turning to her sister.

"Let go," she ordered, and after a moment of hesitation, Lachel's fingers released the metal that caged them. "Tell them what they ask – you'll see the truth." Helo didn't stop to ask what that was supposed to mean, he just followed the marines and Lachel out of the brig.

"What was your purpose in the fleet?"

Lachel had yet to meet the eyes of anyone that was questioning her. She was pretty sure that if she wanted to, she could have gotten out the door of the conference room without anyone being able to stop her, but there wasn't much point – there wasn't anywhere for her to escape to.

"We were just supposed to be here."

"Were you supposed to gather intelligence? You sending data back home?"

"No. We were just supposed to be here. They didn't care if you knew."

That threw Helo for a loop. "We were supposed to find out the truth about what you are?" he asked for himself, not caring that he wasn't supposed to interrupt.

"Part of our destiny is just to be. Just to exist."

"And what's the other part?" That didn't receive an answer. "How much do you know about Cylon plans? What information do you have access to?"

"Not a lot, not yet…Erin knows more."

"Have you always known what you were doing, or were you a sleeper agent when you were younger?"

"I always knew. I wish I'd been a sleeper."

"Why is that?" She shrugged slightly.

"It might have been nice to get to pretend."

TBC... (the blue button says "push me." please? pretty please? sugar and cherries on top.)