DISCLAIMER: The character's and the universe of the Battlestar Galactica do not belong to me.

NOTE: Great thanks for all the reviews! Sorry it takes so long to update chapters now; blame it on the spring…

Also - thank you for beta - AMMONITE!

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HYBRID by -yannik-

Chapter Twelve- THE TRAITOR

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"So it is true?"- Lee wanted to ask. But he managed to keep his desire in check this time – the outburst from just seconds ago had taught him that.

Too many people were around, marines and all. Plus Kara. He didn't want her to know the truth. He didn't want her to hate him, just like she hated Hot Dog now. It was so simple to change what one felt, when realizing one's friend was an enemy…

But that single statement from his father erased all doubts, all confusion. He was half-cylon. His father was a cylon. Who – for some odd reason – decided to betray his species, and would give everything to protect his child. Lee never thought his father would do that, but here he had proof. An obvious proof. There was nothing more important to the cylon Bill Adama, than his son.

"Kara, we…" Bill started, but Lee cut in.

"We should take it from here" he said, looking at her firmly. "We know what they want, we can manage that. You should go back to your quarters and stay put."

"I know what they want too" she replied, and Lee's heart froze. Did she really know? Really? "And I'm not safe in my quarters at all. How do you think I ended up here? They posed as guards! Simon model is there. With Sam…" she choked, and Lee felt so sorry for her, and so furious at the same time. Sam! "They'll kill him if I return without…" she hesitated, not looking up at him, "without the hybrid."

That complicated things.

"We can't give him away" Adama stressed. "We won't."

"But we can't let them kill Anders either" Lee pointed out softly, staring at the floor, suddenly unable to look Starbuck in the eye.

"Now don't tell me you're going to join in with them?" Hot Dog asked incredulously all of a sudden. "You said you wouldn't trust a cylon, no matter what, them being determined by programming and all…"

They had forgotten all about him! And about the marines, and a few curious crewmembers standing in the corridor. Kara jumped up, hearing Hot-Dog's voice. She leaped to him, and hissed straight into his face.

"You thought you knew me didn't you? You thought you could manipulate me, but you're nothing like Leoben. What he said… I did everything the way he wanted. Everything. Even letting Lee in on this – he wanted me to do that, now I know he did. But you? You failed… Hot Dog."

"I only did what Leoben told me to do. So his plan failed" Hot Dog replied, staring at her, unabashed.

Lee grabbed Starbuck's arms, surprised at how composed he suddenly felt. "Calm down. We'll figure something out. But first things first – this needs to be taken to the brig." He motioned to Hot Dog.

Then he ordered the marines to take care of the matter – assigning five of them to the task, just in case. Though if he was correct in his calculations, they had all the male models uncovered at this point. When the group left, he took Starbuck and the Admiral back to his quarters. None of them said another word on their way there.

But Lee's mind raced through possibilities. Giving himself up to save Starbuck's love seemed like a very tempting and amorous gesture. But he was the Fleet's Commander and had more responsibilities than protecting the woman he loved… Dee was right - he loved her still… That was not a thought he wanted to disturb him while making decisions that might change everyone's lives!

Trying to push Starbuck out of his mind, Lee thought about another – larger – problem. The Fleet was being led by the two cylons – him and his father. If, by any chance, Madam Roslin was a cylon too – three female cylons were missing from the equation – that would make things really funny. She had just won the debate about overthrowing President Baltar, and was on her way back to presidency herself.

That was just a suspicion, not a fact, and it dragged Lee's attention away from the matter at hand. His father. And he, himself. Were they worth protecting? What were his father's purposes? Programming, or his own free will, that he somehow managed to accomplish and sustain? Was he helping humanity, or cylons? These were the questions that needed to be answered, but first they had to solve Kara's problem and save Anders.

There was no way they could do it without telling her what they were.

As they stepped into his quarters, Lee turned to face them both, and took a deep breath.

"Firstly, we need to know the truth. We must know where we stand, and then… We can figure out how to use it." He paused and turned his attention to his father. "Dad?"

The older man sighed deeply. He had been hiding this for so many years. It seemed impossible to say the words aloud.

"I am a cylon" he whispered. "Model Number One."

Lee cast a quick glance at Kara, and in her eyes – instead of shock and hatred – he saw pain and genuine compassion. And then she looked up at him, and he realized she was going to fight for him too. And for his father.

That was hard to believe, he couldn't do that… But then he remembered what his first thoughts were, when he thought Kara was the hybrid – it was how to save her. They were not so different then, and whatever they felt for each other – was mutual.

He smiled weakly.

"Okay" he sighed. "So that means they want me. We could give them…"

"No" Kara objected immediately, even before he finished the sentence. He looked up and their eyes locked once more. Lee felt warmth and a spark of happiness among all the misery that his world had become in the last hours.

"Or we could make them believe they'd gotten what they wanted, for just long enough to retake Samuel."

"They won't let us get away with it that easily" Bill Adama interrupted – a voice of reason as always.

"I'm aware of that. That's why we need to come up with some crazy-ass plan. Having a bunch of marines behind our backs to take this Simon out, seems too simple. So maybe that's what we should do?"

"And then what?" Kara chimed in. "I would just come in, with you at gun point, and tell him that I killed the Admiral? He'd never buy it. And without Hot-Dog to confirm my story…

"Besides we don't know if Simon is still alone in there" Adama wondered. "He might have gotten back up." He hesitated, and turned to Kara. "This was not our Galactica Hot-Dog?"

"No. He killed that other one."

"You're sure?"

Kara eyed him suspiciously "Pretty much, yes."

She wondered what the Admiral had on mind, but she didn't like where this was going.

"Even if he's alive, I wouldn't trust him anyway." Lee apparently shared her reservations. "He's been a sleeper, he has those hidden protocols. I would even trust Dee more on this…" Suddenly he stopped and gazed at Kara and his father. "Wait a minute" he breathed out. "We actually might, she betrayed them already, she told me everything."

"You don't know that" Starbuck preferred to be cautious.

But she didn't know the whole story. There were things Dee had said that Lee would rather not tell Kara. However, remembering them now, made him believe once again in the honesty of the woman he used to trust with everything over the past year.

"We are where we are now, because she told me" he stressed. "If I wasn't aware, if I didn't ask my father… Hot-Dog let you in on it, right?" he asked suddenly. He just wanted to make sure – she didn't seem shocked at the revelation of them being cylons. In fact she's taken it much better than he had.

"Hinted" Kara admitted softly, looking at him with eyes that were saying: it doesn't matter anyway.

Lee acknowledged her silent message with a nod. "But we were prepared, more or less" he returned to the subject. "If we were completely clueless, it all might have turned out differently. We would certainly not be standing here discussing the plan right now. She helped us, even if it was at the very last moment. She did it out of love, and it doesn't matter if that love was pre-programmed; as a result of that, she's overridden her programming."

"Could she really do that?" Kara had doubts, Leoben did ask her just that, back on New Caprica… But then she looked up to the Admiral, to the man who was like a father to her. If all cylons were determined by their programming and nothing more, then he was as well. She couldn't trust him, she should really kill him.

Lee stared at his father too. And Bill Adama knew why they did.

"I don't know if she can" he sighed. And then he admitted. "I did. I really did. Out of love – that's true. That's why I was willing to trust Sharon for as long as she was protecting Helo and her child. But truth be told – I started having doubts over time. They are more advanced models than I was. They may have some additional security protocols. And even I had trouble, I must be sure with all my decisions, must reconsider them each time, because some of them – those made on impulse mostly – may be the result of my programming, not my conscious mind. I know that initiating the search of Earth was pre-programmed. That was the cylons' goal in the first war." He stopped suddenly, as he realized this was not the subject. "I'm straying. Truth is – I can't be any guarantee that we can trust Dualla."

"I would take that risk" said Lee. "Even if she betrays us, we'd gain precious seconds – definitely more, than we'd have if just Kara and I stepped in. And if she's been honest with me – we'd have a cylon on our side. That's a worth we can't underestimate."

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Against Lee's and Kara's advice, Bill Adama decided to go to the brig with them. He said he wanted to see Dualla, and talk to her himself.

Lee and Kara waited outside while he talked to the cylon, but neither of them felt like having small talk. Both fully aware that whatever their relationship was, it was now going to change forever. Even if Kara decided to remain faithful to the two friends – who she knew would give their life for her and had proved it tenfold – the recognition of their divergence was going to cast a shade on their friendship.

The Admiral didn't talk to his ex-officer long, but whatever she told him made him trust her; he ordered the guards to release her and told the twosome to proceed with the plan. They only had a few minutes – on their way to the quarters – to fill her in on the plan. When they did, Lee asked her once more if she was on their side.

Dee cast a glance at Starbuck, not even pretending to be fond of her. But she said she was with them. "I already did all I needed to do, to make them box me once I get to be resurrected. Did you know that the name they gave me – Anastasia – means "resurrection" in the language of Kobol? Ironic, isn't it?"

Lee gave Anastasia his gun and let Kara tie his wrists – loosely, so he could free himself fast enough. Ten marines were lurking in the corridor, waiting to aid their Commander if necessary.

With that they entered.

They were greeted by five blank eyes of guns.

"Friendly!" Kara yelled on instinct, changing her aim from Lee to the five cylons. "We got him, alright?"

"She consented" Dualla confirmed her words.

"Now give me my husband back, and we'll leave!"

Silence was the answer. And after this first moment of surprise, Kara started recognizing faces: there was Simon, alright; Leoben slightly to the left with that enigmatic smile of his; another Dualla model; two Hot-Dogs, and… Mrs. Tigh. At least she had no gun…

"Well, well, well…" Ellen stepped forward, lowering guns of Simon, both Hot-Dogs and Dualla, as she passed them. Leoben lowered his. The blonde stopped in front of Kara and pulled down the pilot's gun as well, their faces just inches apart. "Starbuck betrayed Apollo. How unlikely." Then her gaze went to Lee, down to his fastened hands, then to Dualla, standing next to him, her gun hesitantly pointed at his head. "And you?" Ellen asked, rising her eyebrows. "Last I heard you loved him. Sincerely. But then – things change, don't they?" She turned away from them, and faced her fellow cylons. "Looks like we got it!"

"Adama is dead?" asked Simon.

"Yes."

Ellen Tigh snorted lightly. Kara met her amused gaze and thought how much she detested this woman.

"And Eleven?… Hot-Dog?" asked Hot-Dog.

"He shot him" Dualla elbowed Lee.

Kara concentrated on searching for Samuel. He was nowhere in sight, and since saving him was their task – they couldn't move, until they located the man.

Kara couldn't just wait. "Where is Sam?" she urged.

"Safe" replied Simon. "We'll take the hybrid now, and once we're away, you'll receive instructions…"

"No frak!" Kara cut in. "I want him here! Now!" She was losing her nerve. This plan was so stupid, so incredibly stupid! How could they even suspect they'd be able to do anything against those cylons!

And then in the silence that fell after her scream, she heard a muffled, but obvious "Karrr!…" from behind the wall.

"Go" she said, and kicked the hatch behind her with a lout thud.

As the door slid open, she, Lee and Dualla ducked, exposing the six cylons to the guns of the approaching marines. But the cylons started shooting too. Lee freed his hands, and jerked another gun from behind Kara's back. Firing, he pulled her and Dee behind a couch standing to the right. Not the safest hiding place, but it was the best they could do.

Listening to the blast of gun-fire, Kara gazed longingly at the door leading to the back of the apartment, from where she heard Samuel's plea. And when she cast a glance at the cylons and the marines, she saw that only the Dualla model lay unmoving, the other five hid behind a furniture on the other side of the room.

They were being shot at by only three marines – the rest already flat out on the floor. And those three weren't going to last much longer either.

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t.b.c.

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