This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the mini-series and first season (I'll be posted in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilties are endless.
Mason Thrace stared up at the night sky. This was her home. This planet without a name that had no stars in the sky. All the people she had loved had died for her to have this place.

She wiped a tear from her cheek and thought back to the day she had been thrown into this mess. The Old Fleet had been torn apart systematically by the Cylons without them even being aware that it was happening. The original survivors had been fighting for eight years without making it one step closer to this destination.

Earth.

What a crock of shit.

It didn't exist. She knew that even if her mother had believed in its existence up to the day she died. Her mother had never been one for having hope. She was more the type for self-deprecation and self-denial. But in this instance, she had had all the hope left in the world. If there was one thing she believed in besides her daughter and her best friend, it was the fact that the Old Man would never lie to her.

Her mother had kept enough faith in the existence of a thirteenth colony that she was the only voice of reason during the final Cylon Betrayal. Within minutes, she had persuaded Colonel Lee Adama, Chief Cally Winters, and Captain Stephen Meyers, affectionately known as Crashdown to every single person still alive, to help her steal a towing ship large enough to carry three Vipers and a Raptor from the hanger bay. Her mother had taken the children of the Fleet and turned her back on everything she had ever fought for without giving it a second thought.

She chose not to stay and fight. Instead, the great Starbuck ran.

And it was the best spontaneous decision she had ever made in her life. She had given them the only thing that she realistically could. A chance to live.

She had asked her mother every night to tell her the stories of their discovery and settlement of the only piece of earth she had ever known. Even though she was no longer around, Mason still shut her eyes every night and remembered what her mother had felt like during those first few days.

They had been hardest days of her mother's life. There was barely time to think, let alone rest as they made those twenty blind jumps through space in order to throw off any chance of the Cylons discovering where they had gone. Her mother always told her those jumps reminded her of the first few days after the Cylon holocaust when they had had to fight the toasters every thirty-three minutes.

Stories of those initial days of the Second Cylon War were Mason's favorite. But it was that time in Kara's life which caused her the most pain to remember. So she never really heard the stories of the happiest time in her mother's life as often as she would have liked. In fact, she probably wouldn't have known half of what had happened if she didn't have Lee around to pester and tease until he told her what she wanted to know.

Pestering Lee. That seemed to be a talent her mother had passed on to her.

She looked over at the tree growing to her right and smiled. There were three old, dirty gravestones and one fresh one at the base of the large oak. They were the only parents she had ever known. And all she could do was stare at a few rocks and try to remember what they had been like. Each day, it became a little hazier.

The first notable loss, and the one that made her realize that things would never be the same even though she was six, happened only two days after they had found the planet. Crashdown was using the Raptor's computer system to scan for any Cylon presence when the consul exploded.

They hadn't remembered until it was too late that the Raptor they had stolen was the one Crashdown piloted with Lieutenant Sharon Valerii the Cylon traitor.

Fraking toaster bitch.

She had booby-trapped her own bird.

Mason had managed to tear herself away from the protective hold of her mother's arms in time to see the pain of his face as he died that day. He had been betrayed one final time by the only woman he had ever trusted enough to fly with. She had taken away his pride, his faith, his hope, and now she had taken his life

The deaths didn't stop there, either, in those first few days.

Two days later, a few of the children got scared of this new, unknown world and tried to find a way back to their parents and the Fleet. They were too young to understand that there wasn't a Fleet to go back to.

Their bodies were found lying motionless in a field a week later. No one ever figured out what exactly had killed them. They were just buried alongside Crashdown. They had no names on the grave markers. There hadn't been time while they were on the run for the adults to learn the names of all the children on board.

Suddenly, Mason was woken up from her memories of the stories of the escape from Galactica as a man's voice began calling her name.

Brody.

He was the only thing that kept her smiling these days.

Mostly, she figured it was because Brody Adama was the only person who really understood her. It made sense considering his father was the only person who had ever really understood her mother.

The one story her mother had never told her was the reasoning behind her actions that day of the Cylon betrayal. All Mason had known about that day was her mother had let her emotions rule her actions and because of that, the next generation had almost died.

Mason still would have had no idea what had happened to make her mother risk everything if Cally hadn't finally told her on the day they buried her mother next to the man she loved.

Starbuck had refused to leave Galactica with the children unless Lee would come with her. As much as Cally and Crashdown had pleaded with her to take off, she told them that Lee knew what she was doing and he would come before things got too bad.

Knowing that they couldn't fight with Starbuck when she had her mind set on something, they did the only thing they could. They hid with the children inside the rather old ship used for towing while Cylons boarded their home and surrounded the whole hanger bay.

And still she refused to leave. She wouldn't leave him behind. She said that he was too important to their survival. They needed him if they were going to make it on some distant planet.

No one would realize her real reason why until years later.

Never one to let her down, Apollo had come into the hangar bay, guns blazing, with his four-year-old son in tow. When he had shot a clear path to their ship and Crashdown had gotten them out of Galactica and into the air, he was finally able to get Kara to stop screaming at him long enough so he could explain why he had been delayed.

He didn't want to leave without trying at least once to save his father from the Cylons. So he headed to the only place William Adama would be if his bird was under attack.

It had been too late. When he finally made it to the CIC, everyone on the command deck was gone. In fact, most of the command deck was gone. The rattling they had felt through the ship a few minutes earlier had been sound of the most important part of the ship being eliminated. The Cylons weren't fraking around with them this time.

Lee knew there was no way to deny it. His father was really gone.

It was at that moment that Lee realized he had been right to listen to Kara when she pleaded with him to get his son and meet her in the hanger bay to get the children of the Fleet to safety. It was that moment that he realized something he had been denying for way too long.

The Cylons were going to win.

They had no other choice but to run.

Mason heard her name being shouted slightly closer now and responded with, "I'm at the frakkin' Memorial Tree. Would you stop screaming my name and get up here?"

A few minutes later, he was by her side, and she was no longer crying. In the blank darkness of a midnight without stars or a moon, she could really see how much he resembled his mother. The same bone structure. The dichromatic combination of his mother's piercing hazel eyes and his father's equally piercing blue eyes. The same mocha skin only lightened slightly by the influence of his father's skin.

Brody constantly asked her what she remembered about Dualla Adama from the two years she lived on Galactica when he was still just a glimmer in his mother's eye. She told him everything she could remember and things that she had been told by her mother and Lee. Dualla's smile that was the only thing that could make her giggle when she was a baby. The way Dualla had been so proud of becoming a mother. The way that before taking her last breath she made sure her baby had been delivered into this world safely. She had died with love in her eyes, in her heart, and, now that Brody was born, in her arms.

"Are you remembering your mother?" he asked, silently taking her hand in his.

"And yours."

"They were good women."

"The best," she said, rubbing her eyes to keep herself from crying again. It didn't work, and she felt the first few drops fall from her eyes. "God, I miss her, Brody."

"She died saving us. For thirteen years, nothing was more important to her than keeping us safe."

Mason nodded, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill again. Her mother had helped Lee raise Brody in the place of Dualla. Kara had been like a mother to him in a world where mothers didn't exist.

"She was happy, I think. At the end. Because of…" Her voice trailed off and she chanced a small glance at him out of the corner of her eye before asking, "Do you miss your father?"

"He died exactly where he wanted to be. By her side. I think he was happy, too. She made him happy."

"They really loved each other in the end."

"Yeah."

They both just stood hand in hand, staring out at the nothingness in front of them, and remembered their parents.

Kara Thrace and Lee Adama had only been gone for a few months. It had happened on the only day that a Cylon patrol had entered their atmosphere. Cally had repaired as much of the Raptor's electronics as she could and had managed to create a makeshift Cylon detector. The second a Cylon invaded their home, they knew.

Her mother was smart. Like always, she had a plan, but it was crazy and would probably get her killed.

She had planned for this day and had taken the time to modify a Viper. It could carry a weapon made out of the left over tylium from the destroyed Raptor that was great enough to knock out a Cylon basestar if it had to. The only problem was she hadn't had time to figure out how to fire the weapon while still flying. And she hadn't figured out a way for the Viper to get far enough away from the blast to survive.

Mason had begged her not to be stupid. Not to give herself up for their fledgling little group. They needed her to keep them safe.

She had agreed not to do it. She had promised with all her heart.

And then she went and figured out how to make the plan work.

She had finally understood that she would need to have someone else in the cockpit with her. Someone had to pilot while she fired the missile that would save the children she had grown to love.

There wasn't even a question of who that person would be. There was only one man who she would ever trust her life to without question.

And there would be just enough room in the Viper to fit a second person. Which is why it was fortunate that his body fit so well with hers.

Kara and Lee had died together in a blaze of glory. They had done it to buy the children a little more time to live. They had done it to give Brody and Mason a future. Love had taken them to that point together.

Both their children understood that they were happy now that they did not have to run. They had been running for all their lives. They deserved a chance to rest.

"Bodee! Mayson! Where are you?"

Mason smiled as the voice of their youngest little fledgling came up the hill.

Amy Keikeya had been only a few months old when they landed on this planet. As she grew up, she found the pronunciation of everyone's names a little too hard and those mis-names had just stuck over the years.

Mason saw the young girl marching determinedly towards them. "What's wrong with Amy, Brody?"

"That's what I came up here to tell you. She thinks now that she's thirteen she deserves to know what happened to the Fleet and what happened to her father."

Mason nodded and watched silently as the girl made her way to stand in front of them, hands on her hips in a stunning show of resolve. It was time for her to tell the story one last time to the youngest child in their group.

She held her hand out to the girl she loved like a sister and took her over to sit in front of the four graves of the people she had loved so much. Neither one had to explain why they were here in this place. They both knew. So Mason just went right into her well-practiced explanation. "We had a Cylon in the heart of our Fleet, and no one knew it. It all started with the death of Gaius Baltar."

She rattled off the words of the story, cutting out the more brutal parts even though they still rang true in her mind.

Gaius Baltar had been a fool. He had followed the advice of the sixth model of the human Cylon line. He had let the world as everyone knew it be destroyed, and then he had built a Cylon detector which functioned. The first person he tested it on was Sharon Valerii.

She was a Cylon.

The Cylon, Six, had asked him what he was going to do now that he knew Boomer's secret. And that's when he made his first decision that showed a little human integrity. He told his imaginary Cylon friend that she had a right to know.

He told Sharon Valerii, and she murdered him with her bare hands. He begged for his life, and she just laughed.

The Fleet only found out about the true nature of Dr. Baltar's death when it was too late to change anything. For eight years, Boomer killed critical members of the Fleet without anyone suspecting it was her.

Chief Galen Tyrel. Lieutenant Julian Gaeta. Vice President Tom Zarek. Colonel Saul Tigh.

And on that last final day of the Fleet, President Billy Keikeya.

It was the day that the Cylons had designated as the last day of humanity. Sharon Valerii had finally given them the signal to move in. Billy had overheard.

He risked his life by using the first comm he could find, the one in the hallway right outside the equipment locker in which the Cylon mole was currently communicating with her machine counterparts. With the few seconds he had, he called the one person who might be able to save their lives.

Starbuck had not been able to save the Fleet this time, and Billy died at the hands of Sharon Valerii when she realized that he knew the events she was putting into action. Mason had been wandering the corridors of Galactica when Boomer got a hold of the young President. She had seen what that machine could do when she was angry as she hid in the corner, trying to shield her eyes.

She had never told anyone about the brutal death of the man who had saved her life. She had only spoke of the great sacrifice he made for them. She only spoke of how he was destined to be the best President the Twelve Colonies could ever dream of. She only told the children of the Fleet the parts that she could say without bursting into tears.

It was her burden to bear the pain, but it was everyone's blessing to understand what had come of it.

Billy Keikeya was the real reason why the children of the Fleet survived.

Mason finished up her story, knowing that it was the last time she would have to remember the death of President Keikeya. She smiled down at Amy as the young girl shined with pride for what her father had done.

"Your father was a hero. So on those days you feel lonely and wish that you could have known him, just remember that."

Amy nodded through her tears. "Mason. Does it always hurt not knowing your father?"

Mason shrugged. It was common knowledge through their ragtag group that Mason had never known who her father was. Her mother had never told a soul who had gotten her pregnant two years into their flight from the Cylons and subsequent search for Earth.

Rumors had circulated since the day she was born. They had continued all the way up until four months earlier.

The first suspect and the most ridiculous one had been Gaius Baltar. He had died two years before Mason was born, but it seemed some of the more creative pilots thought that the good doctor had found a way to mess with Starbuck's head even after he died. Everyone on Galactica always knew he had had a crush on the lead pilot.

The second suspect had been Lieutenant Karl Agathon. Starbuck had greeted him when he returned to the Fleet after two years of being presumed dead with probably the raciest kiss that the CIC had seen in its whole existence. A good portion of the pilots noticed that Starbuck and Helo were suspiciously absent for a few hours after he was set free from the interrogations and medical tests. Plenty of time to conceive a child.

The third suspect was Lee Adama. He was always a possibility in the Fleet's eyes. All you had to see was the way that her mother's whole being lit up with life whenever he entered the room to know that she loved him. The rumors of his being her father had died down after the whole tryst with Helo was found out.

With their shared sacrifice for what they believed in, the rumors had started again.

Mason didn't know the real answer to the question of who was her father.

She had her suspicions, but Starbuck had never told her.

Smiling at Amy, she lied and told her that the hurt goes away eventually. The young girl nodded and looked so achingly innocent that Mason wanted to tell her the truth. She wanted to tell her that there was a reason why she found the little girl so easy to talk to. There was a reason why she could understand the burden of having such a temper and a rather calming presence and the tension those two things created. There was a reason young Amy and the rest of the Fleet, for that matter, had never known who her mother was. The daughter of the President of the Twelve Colonies could not be created from a secret union with a product of the slums of Caprica who happened to have a god-given talent for pyramid and a good Academy education.

"You should go make sure that everything's safe at the camp," Mason said, giving the girl's hand a small squeeze before letting go. Now was not the time.

Amy nodded, proud that she was old enough to be given instructions, by the unofficial leader of the remnants of humanity, and ran off to do what she had been told.

Mason took a deep breath and knelt forward to touch the marker on the one grace that was fresh. "We miss you, Old Cal." She smirked at the use of the pet name of the woman who had showed her how to build a Viper from spare parts and found objects. She might have only been forty-one when she died, but that made her the oldest member of their motley crew.

She was also one of the most important.

Because of Cally's knowledge, they had been able to salvage the remnants of the burnt Raptor and the unnecessary parts of the towing ship. Combining that with the fallen wreckage of the Cylon ship that her mother and Lee had given their lives up to destroy, they built a new kind of aircraft. One that would function for what they would eventually need to do if the children were ever going to be truly free.

"Look," Brody said, pointing to the horizon.

Mason's face erupted into a massive grin as she saw the sun begin to poke over the horizon. Because of their position in this universe and the rotation of their planet with no name, this only happened once a year. And when it did happen, it only lasted a few hours.

It was the best few hours of her life.

"We're leaving this planet, Brody."

"What?" he said, his face instantly displaying his fear and surprise.

"I want you to load the children into the towing ship. Shooter can pilot it. He had been taking lessons from my mother for at least a year before she died. He can get that thing airborne. Then, I want you to get Leila Zarek. I know she's only fifteen, but she's the best Viper pilot we have. Besides you and I, that is. You and she will power up the two remaining Vipers we have. I'll meet you in the sky in Galactica's Child." Mason smiled at the name she and Cally had bestowed upon their new aircraft creation.

"And why am I going to do this?"

"Because we're going to find the last child of Galactica. We're going to show the Cylons that they are not going to take our lives away from us. We're going to show them that they will not win this war. Helo's daughter is out there somewhere, and she's going to be the one to show us how it can be done. And then she's going to lead us to Earth."

Brody shook his head and laughed. He held his arms out open for her. "You think that a Cylon-Human hybrid is the answer to our problems? You really are as frakin' crazy as your mother."

Mason smiled at him and stepped in to nestle herself against him. "I've been grounded for thirteen years. I want to fly."

And the sun shined down on them.