Sleeping With the Enemy – Part I
She woke with a start, disoriented, confused. And she cried out as pain tore through her abdomen. Harsh, biting pain like she'd never felt before. This was not the searing agony of a gunshot but something deeper, something far more primal.
Tom murmured a question from the bed but Nya couldn't answer. She curled on the floor as though the ability to hold her body tightly around itself would keep everything inside.
She whimpered. And the act of it made her angry. She was so tired of being….
Blood gushed from between her legs, splattered between her fingers and onto the floor. The sound woke Tom and he lunged out of bed as Nya screamed.
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"In the days before time, before there were men or Cylons, the Gods were created. They laughed, and fought, and bred children who were both their delight and their bane. These children fulfilled the niches of the heavens and created the wide expanse of emotions that filled the world. And for every thing of light and beauty, there must be something of darkness. For every song of happiness, one of tragedy."
"Nine muses were given life for they would be the guiding light of humanity. But there is another story, about the nine who were given life to keep the balance. You cannot have beauty and joy without tragedy and suffering. These nine are rarely spoken of but they have names. Violence, rage, suffering, hatred, denial, waste, and…."
"And?" The copies of Sharon gazed up at him with rapt attention. "What are the others?"
Leoben frowned. A strange feeling ricocheted through his stomach, as though he were being shot again. "Nya?" The word burst out of him.
"What are you talking about?"
He grunted as the pain increased and grew sharper. There was no explanation, no reason for the certainty that he felt. This was Nya's pain. And he was lightyears away, bound to instruct Cylons in human beliefs so that the takeover would run smoothly. The thought struck him that he had to go to her. She needed him and he was too far away.
"I…I…" He tried to explain. "I don't feel well."
"Nya was your woman?" One of the copies asked softly. "Do you think she's still alive?"
It took him a moment to compose himself. The pain, whatever it had been, faded. For a moment its absence was so shocking that he couldn't remember the way it had felt.
"I'm okay,
now." He turned his attention back to the scrolls. His voice was
softer than it had been before, but there were still enough enemies
in the Cylon Fleet that he needed to watch himself. Too many slips
could still betray him. "The last three were the bane of humanity
for centuries, but just as important as the other nine. When you want to understand humanity you must know that for everything good there is something bad. It is not necessarily evil, but the way they were made to be."
"The last three were sin, betrayal…and loss."
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"What the frak is going on down here?" Tigh shouldered two medics aside to get further into the room. "I get an emergency flight on the board that nobody told me about. And now no one can explain why it was allowed on board. What the frak is going on? Where is Cottle?"
"In surgery."
Tigh whirled on Zarek as the dark-haired man approached. He still wore the blood-stained pants he'd rolled out of bed in. The stains were still fresh and heart-wrenchingly red. Tigh's eyes widened.
"What did you do?"
A wave of sorrow, something Tigh had never seen on the Sagittaron, passed heavily over Zarek's face. It aged him and made him more human at the same time.
"It's Nya."
"Archer? Lt. Reece?" Tigh fought against the confusion. "You attacked her?"
"No." The word was said softly.
Behind them, in the surgery suite, a hastily gowned Cottle worked frantically. Nurses and medics clustered around him, their forms obscured what was actually going on. As they watched someone dropped a medical instrument and Cottle began to curse loudly as the crew scrambled to find a clean and sterile replacement.
There was nothing either man could do. They watched in silent sorrow as blood splashed on the floor around Cottle's feet and the monitors spat out screeching warnings. Zarek had run with Nya in his arms. Run so fast and hard that he thought his own heart might stop. He'd given her to Cottle to save, but it was starting to look like he'd been too slow. That he would lose them both, and the thought deadened his heart. The grief swamped it and drowned everything under its cloying darkness.
"She's losing the baby."
Sorry about the delays. This story will be finished this weekend, so stay tuned for updates. I got sucked into another fanfic for a bit.
Thanks for everyone reading. I promise that the ending will be a shocker.