A/N: Some of you probably know where I'm going with all of this. But this still is a wrap up of Season One, much like the current Season Two did with dragging out the wrap up over half of the first half of the season. Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter 1

Gaius Baltar couldn't believe his eyes. Of course he hadn't believed much over the past week or so. Men appearing out of thin air, sleek weapons of destruction, and, of course, the return of a woman he thought dead.

I've got you now, he thought to himself. Now I know I'm not insane.

According to the doctor she was in a deep coma. Apparently she had suffered a massive nervous breakdown. He said she should be dead, but wasn't, only proving she was a machine. Not that they'd needed that to make that determination. Lieutenant Thrace had easily identified the Cylon when she suddenly appeared.

Baltar turned his gaze towards the man in the adjoining bed, the man from Earth. His appearance had been sudden as well. Were the two connected somehow? He did remember hearing someone say a connection had been discovered between Lieutenant Valerii and his seemingly lost "friends". He made a note to follow up on that connection.

Mr. Kelan, it seemed, was only suffering from a bump on the head, caused from his sudden fainting at the sight of Baltar's Cylon love. Doctor Cottle told him that he'd wake up within the hour, the other reason Baltar was here at the moment.

A stirring broke Baltar out of his thoughts. Apparently Mr. Kelan was finally deciding to wake up.

"Where? Where am I?" he asked, looking around.

"Sickbay," Baltar told him.

"Again? Good grief, what did I do this time?"

"You, um, fainted," Baltar answered, trying to suppress a chuckle.

"Ah, yes, I remember now," Kelan said, remembering the ordeal. "I was talking to, what's here name, um, Lieutenant Thrace, that's it. I was talking to her when I suddenly thought I saw a ghost."

"A ghost?" Baltar asked.

"Yeah. In fact, there it is again," he said, pointing to the heavily guarded figure of Six. "So it wasn't a nightmare, thank God."

"You recognize her?" Baltar asked.

"Unfortunately so," he said somberly. "It only proves what I was already suspecting when I saw the Cylon in the brig."

Baltar watched as Kelan's face went from that of sadness to near rage. His breathing became ragged and he began to shake violently.

"Those bastards!" he said, keeping his scream to an enraged whisper. Looking at Baltar he said, "I want to know everything about these Cylons. Everything, you hear me! I don't want any lies. I want the truth!"

"Are you sure you want the truth?" a voice asked nearby, causing both men to jump.

"Commander Adama!" Baltar exclaimed, wide eyed. "You're awake."

"I have been for sometime," Adama said blinking his eyes. "What's happening on my ship?"

Colonial One

"What exactly is going on?" Laura Roslin asked. "The commander is awake, you say?"

"He is, finally," Billy told her. "And, well, he wishes to see you immediately."

"For what reason?" she asked, only knowing the answer.

"He didn't say," Billy answered, much to her surprise. "But I have a feeling it has to do with the man from Earth."

"A man I have yet to meet," she observed. "Every time I want to meet him something always comes up."

"The, um, rumor is, Madam President, that our man from Earth may have found out where the human Cylons came from."

"Really?" she asked, somewhat surprised. "And how does he know this?"

"I'm not sure, but perhaps you'll find out when you go to see Adama."

"Perhaps I will," Roslin smiled, thankful for the chance to get off her ship. "Tell the pilot to begin preparations for a docking."

"Already underway," Billy told her. "The commander had anticipated you're wish to meet this man."

Roslin could only smile at this.

"Then I guess all I can do is get ready," she said, moving towards her private quarters.

Kara could not believe her eyes. The man who practically treated her like a daughter was finally awake. She did her best to hold back her tears of joy, though a few managed to slip through.

"Commander," she said, trying to resist the urge to hug him.

"Starbuck. What d'you hear?" he asked with a knowing smile.

"Nothing but the rain," she smiled and gave in, hugging him.

"Easy, easy," Adama said, patting her on the back.

"Sorry, sir," she said, releasing him. "It's just so good to have you back."

"Likewise," Adama told her. "I understand your unauthorized mission home was a success."

"In more ways than one. I found Helo."

"So I heard. And this man from Earth. How did he get here exactly?"

"I still don't understand that myself. I never did take the Arrow down to Kobol. But I think it had something to do with his appearing. And, I'm sorry I didn't believe you about Earth."

"It's alright now," he told her. "It turns out I was right all along. I just wanted to give everyone something to hope for in those first days after our flight from the Colonies. Something to hold us until we could find a new planet to call home. Now, it looks like Earth will eventually be that home."

"If our new friend can find it, that is," Kara pointed out.

"I've been made aware of that situation. But once we move on from here I'll see that Mr. Kelan has everything he needs to find his home. Our home," Adama added.

"What of everything else? What about the government?" Kara asked.

"I intend to make amends. If we're to go on we have to do so as a united people. If we fracture now, the Cylons will have an easy time finishing us off."

"My thoughts exactly, Commander," came the voice of Laura Roslin.

"Madam President, I see you got my message," Adama said in greeting.

"So it's still 'Madam President'? I thought you wanted my resignation?"

"Something came up," Adama said, managing a weak smile. "I hope there were no hard feelings."

"Well, at least I was allowed to stay on my ship," she told him. "But, I suppose I should offer an apology myself. I should never have ordered Lieutenant Thrace to go to Caprica. If she hadn't, then you wouldn't have gotten shot."

"I don't like to dwindle on 'what-ifs', Madam President. Things happen and you have to move on, regardless of the outcome. The thing that shot me could have found another opportunity to complete her mission."

"I understand there's another one," Roslin said.

"Indeed there is. Two actually. A clone of the one that shot me and one that Lieutenant Thrace has dealt with personally," he told her, indicating the heavy presence of Marines in the sick bay. "It appears they can hide themselves as well as look like us."

"I don't understand."

"I'm sure there'll be time to discuss all of this later," Adama said, easing his self up slightly. "Once the doctor releases me from his grip, that is."

"That'll come soon enough," Dr. Cottle retorted as he entered the area. "But right now I'd like you to get some rest. Removing two bullets from your chest isn't exactly something you sit up from after a week."

"Is that an order, Doctor?" Adama asked.

"You damn right it is. Now, the rest of you, out. Visiting hours are over."

Smiling, Roslin, Billy and Kara turned to leave.

"One more thing," Roslin said, turning back to Adama. "Where is the man from Earth at the moment? I've been wanting to meet with him for some time now, but something always seems to prevent that."

"Lieutenant Thrace can lead the way," Adama answered without looking up.

"Thank you, Commander. Lieutenant?"

Leading the way, Kara and Roslin exited. On the bed nearby, the prone form of Number Six twitched slightly.

She felt like she was falling. It was something she'd never experienced before. Not in the sense she was feeling it, that is. The memory of her fall at the hands of Kara Thrace still burned in her memory, but this feeling was something else.

Around her she could see images, images she had never seen before. Or so her subconscious programming was telling her. She had never dreamed before since Cylons never required sleep. Several of her clones had feigned sleep before, but never actually experienced it.

Her world had been dark after the shutdown, at least in the beginning. Despite her higher functions being turned off she still had fleeting memories of being handled by the humans, placed on a gurney, and taken to their sickbay. Instead of killing her, they were actually watching over here! Her routines dictated that humans did not watch over and help Cylons. They destroyed them. This way of thinking only served to drive her deep into her subconscious.

And now the images. Some of them looked familiar. There were predominately people in these images and she actually recognized some of them. Or so she thought. Model Number Seven seemed to dominate most of them, though she did recognize most of the other Humanoid Models as well.

And the man. The man that her routines insisted did not exist. He seemed to be in all of these images. Sometimes he was angry, other times he was talking nice to her. It was all confusing, of course, since she had no memory of him.

What is happening to me? she begged to God, hoping He could hear. Why are you doing this to me?

She got no answer. Sullen, she allowed herself to drift farther into her subconscious. The images soon disappeared.

He felt like punching something again. He didn't want to believe what Cally was telling him, but it appeared to be the truth he was seeking.

"Sentient machines, created by humans, with absolutely no checks on their actions?" he asked when she finished.

"They were created as servants, soldiers, whatever we had grown tired of doing," she explained.

"And no one complained about this? If this had been Earth every union worker on every continent would have been screaming at the top of their lungs over the loss of jobs. Oh, we have machines that do things for us, but they don't think. At least they didn't when I was there."

"What's a union?" Cally asked, confused.

"Later. I just can't wrap my mind around how you let these things go after they rose up and killed millions of people."

"We did the best we could. We couldn't outthink them," she told him. "They could hack our computers with such ease."

"Because you let them," he shot back. "According to this book you didn't even try to fight them with technology. You just used brute force to fight them back. Ten years and all you did was unite your colonies and build these ships. There was so much more you could have done. You could have hit them with a virus of your own. You could have use developed electromagnetic weapons. But you didn't. You just used what you had, you didn't innovate. And look what it got you. Look what it got me."

"I'm sorry," she told him. "I really am."

"Tell that to the billions who died when they came back. Tell that to my friends."

He realized he'd gone too far.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's not your fault," she told him, holding back her tears. "My parents lived in Caprica City. I'm sure they didn't suffer."

He paced around the room trying to collect his thoughts.

"Why not me, though?" he finally asked.

"Excuse me?"

"Why not me? The hard drive I had been processed to shows no signs of tampering. If these Cylons are such computer geniuses they would have easily tapped into it as well. And yet I'm here. Why?"

"I guess only the Cylons know," she told him.

"Still, as soon as that one in sickbay wakes up, I'm going to be very angry," he noted.

A beep at his computer temporarily broke him out of his rage. The program had retrieved yet another piece of information.

"Seems to be a video of some kind," he said, noting the file extension. "Nothing we put on there when we left Earth, though. Of course, look at the date. It was created some thirty years ago."

"About a decade after the Cylons left," Cally pointed out.

"Let's watch it, then," Kelan said, pulling up the relevant program.

After what appeared to be static, the video began playing. As it did, both Cally and Kelan let out a collective gasp.