"Is it my turn now?" Erin asked as they returned to the brig about an hour later and began putting Lachel back into the cell. "Did she tell you everything you wanted? Did you believe her?"

"You can make my life easy," Helo told her, coming to stand before her outside of her little cage. "Tell me right now that you've got nothing of worth to say, and this can be over with quick." Erin smiled up at him.

"You're all the same," she said. The next thing Helo knew, he was looking at the barrel of his own gun. Kara had warned him about strength and reflexes, but Sharon had never demonstrated her abilities against him, and he'd underestimated the child that looked like she wanted nothing more at the moment than to kill him.

In a move so fast it would have been missed if the one observing were to blink, suddenly the gun had disappeared from Erin's hand and was flying across the room to clatter to the floor. Lachel had her double by the throat, her own glare meeting a look of surprise. "You're not going to hurt anyone," she commanded.

Erin quickly knocked her lose and went to retrieve her weapon. Lachel grabbed her, and they were soon in a desperate struggle with each other for power. The marines tried to step in, but one of them wound up being knocked to the ground when he got in the middle – this was strictly something between the two half-breeds. A few drops of blood hit the floor after a particularly well-delivered punch, and a noise of pain could be heard from one of them after a good kick to the ribs.

"With any luck, they'll kill each other," one of the marines muttered, barely audibly.

A moment later, there was a distinct crack, the sound of a neck being snapped. Erin's body hit the floor like a bag of wet cement. Lachel was left standing – barely – though beaten and bruised. Her eyes met those of the men that were watching, then rolled up in her head as she, too, collapsed to the ground.

The guards were finally able to rush forward. "She's dead," one of them told Helo after checking Erin.

He nodded. "Call for a med team for the other one. And get Dee to pass the word for Kara Thrace to get down here."

According to Sharon, Cylons – even half-breeds – didn't get sick. It was therefore extremely puzzling when Lachel remained unconscious for hours, her body barely in a state to keep her alive. Was her survival connected to her sister's? Had she triggered some hidden program that was now acting as a self destruct? Doc Cottle and Baltar both worked on finding answers, and the outcome thrilled no one.

"She's dying?" Adama asked his ship's Cheif Medical Officer as they met in the Commander's office.

"She's suffering from highly accelerated cell-breakdown. Whatever they did to her, it was more than her body could handle, even if she is half-Cylon. Pretty soon her organs will no longer be able to sustain her."

"Why didn't the same thing happen with the other one?"

"From what we could tell on the autopsy, she wasn't aged in the same manner. She grew years in days, yes, but not years in one night. Erin probably would have eventually succumbed to the effects as well."

"There's nothing that can be done to save her?"

Cottle snorted. "The toasters frakked her up but good."

"Was that a yes or a no, Major?"

He frowned. "Wasn't she supposed to be going out an airlock anyway?"

"A yes or a no?"

Cottle finally shook his head. "Even if it was possible to do something for her, it would take more time than what we've got to figure out what."

"How long have we got?"

"At this rate? A day. Maybe two at best."

"Does she know?"

"I didn't tell her, but yeah, she knew when she woke up."

Adama nodded. "What about Lieutenant Thrace?"

"What about her?"

"Nothing. I'll take care of it. Thank you, Doctor." Cottle nodded and left. Adama picked up his phone. "Dee, please put out an alert for Lieutenant Thrace to report to my office."

Adama was reading through some reports when the knock on his hatch sounded and Kara stepped through the door. "You wanted to see me?" she asked him.

"Yes. Have a seat." She looked at him warily for a moment before complying. "I just spoke with Doc Cottle about Lachel."

She sighed, seemingly un-impressed. "Is she going in the brig, or out an airlock?"

"Kara…she's not going to leave the Life Station." That got her attention.

"Why not?"

"The Cylons overestimated what her body could handle. She is half human, and whatever they did to her to cause her to age so quickly…she won't survive it." Kara nodded, and Adama could practically see the steel wall she was building around herself.

"Was that all, Sir?" she asked him, standing up. Adama stood as well, stepping out from behind his desk.

"Kara…you felt something for her at one point – "

"I felt sorry for her. I thought she was an innocent little kid that had been put through hell. Not some freak Cylon mad scientist creation!"

"Whether or not you want to admit it, that little girl has half of your genes." Kara turned to leave, not caring whether she'd been dismissed yet or not. "Lieutenant," Adama snapped, hating that he had to resort to pulling rank. "I know you never saw yourself ending up in this position, but we aren't always asked what we want in life…And you won't have to deal with this situation for very long. Make sure that however you choose to deal with it, you won't regret it later…This is something far more important than your loyalties to the fleet, or to me, or to this ship. This is something you'll have to carry the rest of your life."

Kara was silent for a long moment. "How long does she have?" she finally asked.

"A couple days at most." She nodded, and then left the office.

Kara took a deep breath, steeling herself, before pushing back the curtain that was in front of her. It had taken a day for her to get up nerve, and still was only there because she knew time was running out, but at least she was actually at the Life Station. Lachel looked up from her place on the bed upon hearing her visitor approach.

"Hey," Kara said, her voice not much more than a whisper.

"Hi."

Kara shut the curtain back and moved to the side of the bed. "I brought something for you." From behind her back, she produced a small stuffed animal.

"What is it?"

That threw the pilot for a bit of a loop. "It's a stuffed animal." When no recognition showed, "A dog. With all the knowledge in your head, the Cylons didn't teach you about dogs?" Lachel shook her head, but reached for the toy. "They're animals we have – animals that we used to have on the colonies. People would keep them as pets."

"Pets?"

"Yeah, like…a friend."

"But they're a different species."

"Yeah. That's the whole point of a pet."

Lachel considered that. "Cylons were like pets once."

"Yeah, I guess they were. But dogs didn't wipe out 99.99 percent of the human species."

"It's cute," the little girl said.

"I just thought…I thought you should have some idea of what being a human child is like. Even if…"

"Even if it's not for very long?"

"Yeah."

Lachel smiled slightly. "I'm not scared, Kara. I don't care that there isn't another body waiting for me. It's better this way. It's more like you."

"That's all you wanted, huh?"

The child looked down, focusing on the blanket that covered her lap. Silence reigned for a long moment. "Will you stay with me?" she finally, quietly asked. Kara watched her for a moment, then motioned for Lachel to scoot over and sat beside her on the bed.

"I'll stay as long as you do," she whispered. Lachel curled up at her side, and the pilot couldn't help thinking that something vital was about to be taken away from her, and far too soon.

Lachel had lost consciousness by the time that Lee arrived a few hours later, peering at his best friend and her little Cylon child through the gap in the curtain. He never would have believed that the infamous Starbuck could be so domestic if he wasn't seeing it with his own eyes.

"Hey," he quietly said. Kara looked up.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to be with you."

"This is my problem, Lee."

"Yeah, well, I'm not letting you be here alone. Deal with it." He sat down in the chair by the bed.

"She could have grown up here," Kara quietly said without looking at him. "She just wanted to be like us. She and Erin were different."

"You probably would have had her in a Viper in a few years." Kara shook her head.

"No. I would have made sure she went to school on one of the ships somewhere. She knew so much and so little at the same time."

"She probably would have liked being with other children."

"I've been sitting here thinking about it...I'm actually wishing she was more of a Cylon, that she had another body somewhere for her, so that she wouldn't...I didn't want her, Lee. I still don't think I want her. But I would have done anything for her. She did the same for us."

A machine let off a long, steady pulse instead of continuous beeps, and a few technicians came into the room. They checked Lachel over, but everyone knew there was nothing to be done. Kara jumped when Lee's hand landed on her shoulder.

"Come on," he told his best friend. "It's over. Let me take you back to the bunkroom." She hesitated, looking down at the small body in her arms, before finally starting to get up. After a long moment, she let Lachel's hand slip from her own, and followed Lee out of the Life Station.