The Knot Breaks – Part III

It was the scream that undid them.

Nya rolled from the bed and drew on Zarek's discarded pants and her tank top. She cinched his belt tightly around her waist as she slung her pistol holster and ran for the tent door.

Her eyes rolled upward: Cylon fighters.

They streaked across the sky in silver formations. Edge aligned with edge. Mechanical precision on display.

"Lords of Kobol." She whispered.

The cold ground bit at her feet as she jogged from their tent. The main thoroughfare was just a few lanes away and she could hear the noise. Murmurs mostly, babies crying, but underneath it all was the sound of Centurion sentinels marching.

She rounded the last corner and stopped. The Centurions moved down the street as the settlers shifted and moved out of their way. The shock was palpable on the faces around her. A thick and disheartening dread as the impossible happened.

Nya searched the Centurions and as she did her eyes passed across a face that she knew.

Her heart stopped.

Simply ceased to beat.

She was not horrified, nor shocked when all things came clear. Leoben stood just behind the Centurions with a two copies of Sharon Valerii and one of Aaron Doral. He was looking across the crowd of humans with a bored look as the four spoke among themselves. The overseers watching the occupation take effect.

Cold hard metal under her fingertips reminded her of what she carried. Nya looked down at the gun in her holster and then back up at the Centurions. They were almost abreast of her position and would soon pass her. Her toes flexed on the soil as she tensed imperceptibly.

A single Centurion turned to look at her and evidently dismissed her as it kept moving. Disheveled hair, half-dressed, and barefoot – hardly a threat.

The growing crowds of humans covered her movement as she headed towards the four. The gun slipped easily out of the holster even though she could not have answered why she drew it.

A woman to Nya's left groaned. "They've found us."

Nya didn't answer. Her eyes remained on target for the man ahead of her. A chill raced across her forearms as she bent slightly and drew.

She stepped out on the street alone. The holster was dropped and forgotten amidst the crowd. The murmurs increased as those around her whispered in fear and misunderstanding.

"Leoben Conoy."

The Cylon looked up and confusion filled its eyes. "Who are you?" He asked. His lips curled in disdain as he stared at her.

The gunshot clipped the morning air. Gave it the first taste of violence. The copy staggered back a single step and fell. The bullet hole in his forehead oozed blood but he was already dead.

Screams surrounded Nya. The gun dropped and she stared at the body in the dust. Sorrow swamped her heart and something more indefinable, a satisfaction at the revenge she was owed. Owed for the pain and the heartache, for the things she had seen and witnessed, for feeling that her soul had died again and again in the stars. It would have been easier for him to have opened the airlock so long ago.

He shakes his head as though there's a tick. "I'm supposed to do this. Open the airlocks at the appointed time. I have to do this. I'm supposed to do this."

"Why?"

"I don't know." His hand drops away and his head drops as he tries to find the reason within himself. "I don't know."

"Everything in this world is a choice." The words echo as the cold, dark part of space seems to suck the heat from the room. A chill descends over both of them as his hand steals back toward the keypad. She won't be able to outfight him, weekly games of Pyramid have taught her the futility of that, his frame hides tremendous strength.

"It's a choice, Leo. Your choice. There is nothing out there except for death. Come back to us. Come back to me."

But now that he has truly come back, she cannot look upon him. Cannot know whether she killed her Leoben or just another copy. She does not want to know.

Tears start to trickle from her cheeks as her weapon falls. She doesn't notice as it strikes her foot and draws blood. Everything grows suddenly quiet inside her mind.

The stomping run of Centurions doesn't intrude. Neither is she ready for the striking blow from behind. It throws her twenty feet, she cannot stay upright, and skids along the dirt. Then, they are right on top of her, Cylon weapons pointed straight at her head as she kneels there.

"Nya!" She hears Tom yell distantly.

Her eyes blinded by dust and the salty tears of betrayal do not look up. "Guardians of the gates of death, Keres, hear my prayers." She whispers. Guns lock on with whines all around her as the end nears. "I have chosen your path into the darkness. Receive me in good faith and judge my actions with open eyes. I do not fear you. I do not fear the darkness. I am ready."

"Eliminate the threat." The Centurion leader orders.

She closes her eyes as the last tears slip between them and fall to the dusty ground. New Caprica sucks them up in callous disregard. A breath and then another. They are suddenly so vibrant as though her body knows to suck up the last bits of life.

"Hail Gods and Goddesses." She breathes. "Hail, those in those heavens, as life comes undone. I am ready."

She turns toward the Cylon weapons, but doesn't hear the commotion behind her. Shouts and desperation, as the crowd parts around something and then draws together again to watch. No one has the presence of mind to try and stop the Centurions, except for the man who breaks free of the last ranks of humans.

Who looks with horrified eyes upon the scene in front of him. A copy slain, and the woman he has fought so hard for at the shooting end of a firing squad.

Leoben stared at Nya and she saw him and realized the truth.

"Nya…" He whispered.

Tom Zarek jumped in the crowd as though struck.

"Nya, I…" Leoben turned to the Centurions. "Stand down."

"We cannot do that. She murdered one of your model."

"Then arrest her." Leoben ordered shortly. "This occupation was to be conducted without bloodshed."

The Centurions drug her up from the ground. She dangled between the larger machines without a struggle. Blood dripped from one knee and splattered across the ground. New Caprica accepted that as well. Blood was already spilled.

Leoben turned to Nya and realized then, that across the miles, across the thousands of lightyears, she had never truly believed he would come back.

"But I promised you," he told her softly. "I promised you."

This has taken me a lot more stops and starts then I had anticipated. Thanks to everyone who read.

Part III will begin this October. Let the occupation commence.