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After a few more nights of dreams, sleeping was becoming a challenge. Sometimes Lachel was being tormented for her betrayal of her Cylon purpose; sometimes she was being trained alongside her sister to command centurions (and the irony of the biocylons also treating centurions like slaves was not lost). Kara had no idea what was going on anymore, which led her to pay a visit to Galactica's resident Cylon.

"What's wrong?" Sharon asked upon picking up the phone that connected her to her visitor.

"Am I that obvious?" Kara asked. She didn't get an answer. "Half-breeds aren't designed to upload, right?"

"What?"

Kara sighed. "Erin and Lachel weren't supposed to be designed to be sent to new bodies if they were killed. Correct?" Sharon nodded.

"From what I know, they would have been a very unexpected success in the tests being done on Caprica. They wouldn't have copies."

"But is it possible that they really were uploaded?"

"I don't know…Maybe. If they were…if they were, that means…it means their destiny is far more significant than I thought."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"They were failed experiments in procreation and rapid maturation. There wouldn't have been any reason to keep them around, unless there was something more…Kara, what's going on? Why are you asking this?" Without answering, Kara hung up the phone and left.

Later that night, Lee found her playing solitary Triad in her bunk. "So I heard a little rumor today that you paid a visit to our little toaster-in-a-box." Kara didn't answer. Lee leaned against the wall by her rack. "What's the matter, Kara? Talk to me."

"I'm playing cards."

"And I'm trying to have a conversation. Were you just reminiscing about Caprica, or is something up?"

Kara looked up at that. "Don't talk to me about Caprica."

"I saw it too, Kara. I know it's not the same, but I saw it, too…Is that what this is about? You went to talk about…them." She abandoned her card game.

"You can't even utter their frakking names, Lee, so why exactly am I supposed to be having a conversation with you about this?"

"Lachel and Erin," he slowly and deliberately said. "Are they what this is about?" Her silent stare was his answer. "Okay. They're gone, Kara, and there's nothing anyone could have done."

"What if they're not?"

Lee froze. "What?"

"What if they're not really gone? What if they were uploaded?"

"I thought that – "

"I know what we thought, but what if we were wrong? I…I've been having a lot of really frakked up dreams recently, and...I'm worried that at this moment they're on a Basestar somewhere."

"Kara, they're Cylons. Basestars are their homes. And you're getting this from dreams?" She rolled her eyes, turning back to her game.

"Forget it, Lee."

"Okay, fine, maybe you're right. But even if you are…promise me, Kara, that you're not going to do something crazy. We have no idea where they are, if they are actually still alive, and anything you try would almost certainly be a suicide mission. I'm not losing my best pilot that easily. You've survived too much already. So…do you promise?"

"Whatever, Lee."

"Promise me."

Kara sighed. "I promise."

"Thank you…And for what it's worth…I hope your dreams are wrong."

The last place that Kara ever wanted to see again was Caprica. The carnage that the old high school / resistance base had held was something she wished she could permanently erase from her memory. However, it seemed like that wish would not be granted.

After finally falling asleep following a few hours of tossing and turning, Kara found herself back on her homeworld, outside of the ravaged building. She'd arrived just in time to see the C-Bucks and other resisters get slaughtered by the centurions that were running around the base like metallic grim reapers. Amidst the cries of panic and pain from her friends, she could hear a screaming wail that could only belong to a small child. It was hard to feel sympathy toward Erin and Lachel at that moment for the terror they must have feigned while their race mowed down more members of her own. But then Kara actually saw the girls.

For the first time since the dreams had began, Lachel was appearing as a baby, unable to do anything for herself but cry while the centurions circled her in the open courtyard. Even more disturbing, however, was the fact that Erin was solemnly commanding the toasters that were advancing on her sister. Their long-fingered hands were replaced with guns, and a cloud of dust erupted from the spot that all six Cylons began shooting at, obscuring Kara's view. She didn't need to see to know, though – the screams had abruptly ended.

Startling awake, Kara's breath caught when she realized that she wasn't alone in her bunk. Lachel – aged once more – was sitting at the foot of her bed, silently staring at her, her eyes haunting.

Upon truly waking up a moment later, Kara's heart was racing like she'd just finished running laps around Galactica at a sprint. She was alone in her bunk, and everything in the room was just the way that it had been when she went to sleep a few hours earlier. She was exhausted, but didn't dare risk trying to sleep again. Slipping out of bed, she got her PT clothes and sneakers with plans of heading to the training room – something needed a pummeling. One thing was for certain, though: she now knew that Lachel really had to be alive.

Lachel opened her eyes to see that Leoben and Erin were watching her. "She knows," she told them, and saw Leoben's smile grow.

"Excellent."

"Why are we doing this?" Lachel asked him. "If your intention is for her to come for me, she will die trying. What is the point?"

"We know now that love is the answer," Leoben replied. "It was always known that a human would never love a Cylon child – that is why model Twelve was chosen to carry out God's will."

"We survived," Erin pointed out. He smiled.

"Yes. Why? Because of your mother? Because of whom she is, what she gave you in your genes? There is so much that love cannot do, cannot stop, cannot change…and yet it has a power that we must understand in order to get what we need from it. So we sent you to her. However, one thing was unexpected – you see the power balance between you as opposite of what it really is."

Erin frowned. "How?"

"Your hope, your expectations of your mother – they were weaknesses. Anger and disappointment can be as well. What did your efforts bring you? Nothing. Kara is not Cylon; she does not understand the things that you do, or see them in the same way. But Lachel…you are different."

"She's a traitor," Erin interjected.

"She earned something closer to love than anyone had imagined her getting. And that is why we do this. Even without your physical presence, you have so much power over your mother. Why? What are its limits? How can we manipulate it? Understanding love is the key to obeying God's will, and therefore to being alive."

"What purpose would her death serve?" Lachel asked.

"We haven't killed her yet, have we? But if she dies, it will give us more information. We do not fear death, but humans do. Something that can make them override their own desire for self-preservation in order to save another is extremely powerful."

Erin rolled her eyes. "It also sounds extremely stupid. And dangerous."

Leoben laughed. "Perhaps. Perhaps not." Lachel decided to stop asking questions. She wasn't sure if she wanted the answers anymore.

By the time Kara got out on patrol, she was really hoping that the Cylons didn't pick her shift as the one to find Galactica during; she wasn't sure if she'd make it through a dogfight alive. She really should have been taking stims, but then Doc Cottle – and Lee – would know that she wasn't sleeping, and want to know why, and that wasn't something she was willing to discuss. Besides that, they'd had enough problems already with overtired and drugged up pilots. So she was just praying to the Gods that the time would pass by quickly.

"I want to do tricks," a little voice said. Looking down, Kara realized that not only was she no longer in her flight suit, but there was a small blonde girl sitting on her lap. A smile crossed her face.

"Tricks, huh? I dunno. This is your first flight."

"Please?" Lachel asked her.

"Mmm. I've got a question for you first. What are the different ways a Viper can move?"

"Forwards and backwards…side to side…up and down…pitch, and…and…I forget."

"Starts with a Y."

"Yaw."

"Right. And what's everyone's personal favorite?"

"Roll!" On cue, Kara tightened her grip around Lachel's waist with one arm and used her other hand to throw the Viper into a single barrel roll. The girl was giggling as they pulled out of it. "One more?"

"Later."

"Okay." She twisted around slightly to look up at Kara. "You have to forget."

"Forget what?"

"Forget me. You have to, to keep us both safe. It's the only way."

And then reality came rushing back all of a sudden. "Where are you, Lachel? Are you okay? I mean, all the things I've seen…"

"I'm sorry about that."

Kara shook her head. "It doesn't matter, as long as you're all right." She was silent for a long moment.

"I can't wait to see my cousin," the little girl finally said.

"Kara? Kara, can you hear me?"

A moment later, Lachel was gone; Kara was still out on CAP, and about five seconds away from crashing into Galactica's starboard engine housing. Instantly, she yanked the nose of her Viper up and cleared the ship.

"I'm here," she replied over wireless. "I'm okay."

Standing with the LSO overlooking the flight deck, Lee sighed with relief. "What the frak happened, did you black out?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Like hell. We've been calling you for the past five minutes. Can you handle landing?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "I'm all right, Lee."

"Get your six on the flight deck, Lieutenant. Now."

It was her turn to sigh this time. "Yes, Sir."

Lee was amazed that Kara somehow managed to get on the deck, get down from her Viper, and get out of the hangar before he could get to her. Granted, he got a little sidetracked with getting another pilot in the air to replace her, but Kara had still put in a good bit of effort in getting away from him and everyone else as fast as humanly possible. She wasn't in their bunk room so his next guess was that she was beating something up – hopefully an inanimate 'something.'

"What's going on?" Lee asked as he joined her in the otherwise empty training room. Kara got a few more hits in on the punching bag.

"Nothing."

"Yeah, Kara, it definitely looks like nothing. You almost died out there, do you get that? Galactica wasn't the only ship you almost slammed into. And you weren't answering anyone on wireless for several minutes." She didn't reply. "What the frak was going on? I want an explanation; you owe me that."

Kara stopped assaulting the bag long enough to shoot him a glare. "I don't owe you shit, Lee."

"You're the best friend I've got left in this universe…maybe more than that, but that's beside the point. I want to know what's happening with you before it gets you killed. Were you conscious?"

"I…I don't know. I couldn't hear you; I would have said something if I had."

"Okay…what was going on?"

Kara left the bag alone, turning away from him. "Lachel was with me in my cockpit."

Lee raised an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

"I wasn't hallucinating, and I'm not crazy. She was there, with me." He didn't answer, and Kara didn't like the look on his face once she finally forced herself to check his reaction. "I'm not frakking making this up, Lee! I've been seeing her…she's been coming to me in dreams. I don't know why. And I really don't know how it's possible, but my daughter was out there flying with me today."

He sighed. "Wow."

Kara rolled her eyes. "You're the one who asked. Now leave me alone."

"I believe you, Kara," he told her. "You know why?"

"I'm sure that you're going to enlighten me."

"You just called her your daughter. Out loud. Have you ever done that before?"

"No."

Lee nodded. "Something really has to be going on."

She considered that for a long moment. "I'm afraid they're doing something to her."

"Is it possible that they're just messing with your head?"

"I don't know…maybe, but this time…this conversation was…different…" she trailed off as scene in the Viper replayed in her head.

"What?" Lee asked.

"Sharon."

He frowned. "What about her?"

"Lachel said she's going to see her cousin. The Cylons are going to get Sharon's baby back."

TBC...