DISCLAIMER: The character's and the universe of the Battlestar Galactica do not belong to me.
NOTE: Thank you everyone for reading this, and special thanks to all those who commented on this story. This is the last chapter. I hope you like what happens here, and that you will be surprised with the final solution.
Thank you to AMMONITE for beta.
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HYBRID by -yannik-
Chapter Thirteen - THE GOAL
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Adama to Starbuck in Flesh And Bone: "It's my after-action report on Leoben (…) He has an agenda. It's a goal you won't understand until later. Your job is to make sure he doesn't achieve the goal."
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The situation was getting out of control at FTL speed. Six out of ten marines were dead or wounded severely enough that they were out of action. Meanwhile five cylons – probably four of them armed – were shooting from the other side of the room. Kara and Lee were fighting too, but the frakking cylon they had brought with them – the Dualla model – was just sitting on the floor, doing nothing. What advantage was that?
Kara cast a longing glance towards the room her husband was held in. She caught Lee's glance as well – he knew what she was thinking.
"Not yet" he whispered as they hid behind the couch to reload their guns. "Trust me. You do trust me, right?"
"You know I do" she replied. Of course she did, how could he doubt that? She was doing it for him after all, and she would do anything for him. Anything except sacrifice Samuel. What a frakking choice this was! What a mess she's gotten herself into!
They sprung out and started shooting again, Hot Dog's head flashed above the desk. Starbuck aimed and hit it on pure instinct and hatred.
"One more down!" she exclaimed as they hid again.
"Great shot."
"We actually have a chance!"
"No, you don't" came a whisper.
Lee apparently didn't hear it, as he got up and started shooting, but Kara leaned to the still form of Dualla. The cylon was holding her hands to her belly, and Kara realized that her blouse was turning dark red. There were also streaks of red on her fingers. Blood.
Dualla was shot, that was why she wasn't helping them. Kara felt a small pang of guilt because of her earlier reservations. "Are you alright?" she asked, and Dee tightly gripped her hand in response. That reminded Kara that she was actually a thing!
"Do you think they will let you get away with this?" Dualla whispered. "Even if you kill all those who are in this room now – do you think that would be it?"
Kara had to admit she hadn't thought past freeing Sam. But they would come up with some plan to protect Lee later.
"They will come back for him" Dee confirmed her thoughts, nodding toward Lee, who had just taken cover again.
He looked at the two women, and noticed Dee's wound. No words passed, but he knew the injury was fatal; she was soon to be downloaded and most likely boxed. There was nothing to say or do, so he just returned to trying to send away as many of the skin-jobs as possible with her.
"There is a way, though" Dee whispered to Kara, her gaze glued to the man she loved – and wanted to protect at all costs. "There is a way to stop them pursuing you, or at least a way to delay this, give you some time, maybe even let you escape." Dee talked quickly, hoping to convince Kara, knowing that her time was limited. But the talking drained her, and she started coughing, her whole body shaking in pain.
"Another Hot-Dog down" said Lee, bending down behind the couch. "The scales are tipping in our favor; there's just Leoben, Simon and Ellen Tigh, who is not shooting. How is she?" he nodded toward Dee, whose eyes were closed, and who was gasping for breath.
"Bad" Kara answered, somehow guessing that Dualla didn't want to discuss the backup plan with Lee. She waited for him to go back to shooting.
Lee cast a glance at the women's joined hands and nodded, as if allowing Kara to stay with the dying cylon. That was so odd! Dee had hardly been Kara's friend when she was undercover, when everybody thought she was human. In fact, Kara had disliked her this past year. Now she finally had a true rational reason to hate this thing, and yet she kneeled there, holding its hand, trying to ease the pain of passing away.
No, the only reason Kara sat there was because this thing claimed to have an idea how to protect Lee, and that idea might soon perish if the thing died.
"What should we do?" she nagged the cylon.
Dualla's eyes snapped open, and she gazed around, recognizing her surroundings with visible difficulty. "Lee…" she whispered, gathering her thoughts. "They want the next generation… of hybrids. That's what I…was here for. But he did not love me… He loves you…" Dualla started coughing again, and Kara waited for her to continue, struggled to remain patient. She needed some specific instructions, some conclusion, but as she waited…the conclusion came to her like a lightning blow.
Lee sat behind the couch once more. "Simon is down" he said, but Kara didn't register that, as she stared in those lovely blue eyes of his.
He loved her, yes. She knew that. During the past year a part of her had remembered his jealousy of Baltar, his kiss when she returned, his accidental confession on the Astral Queen…and his generosity when he let her go to get Anders back. At that time she thought he did that because he'd been with Dualla and didn't care, but deep inside she knew that only out of true love can one set the other free.
She loved him too. Even though she was with Sam, there were moments when she dreamt what would happen if…if things could be different.
But this - having his child because it could save him from torture and death?
Kara always worked best on instinct and natural response. Thinking could only get her in trouble, so she stopped thinking and sprung from behind the couch, her hands raised above her head.
"Kara, whatta…" Lee hissed, but she ignored him.
"Stop shooting!" she yelled. "I have an offer to make!"
The shooting stopped, and the silence that fell almost hurt her ears.
"I'm listening" Leoben said, also standing up. A female hand tugged at his sleeve, trying to get him back down, but he shook it off, and gazed at Kara with a frown.
She cast one final glance at the door to the back room, seeing Sam in her mind's eye and hoping he would understand and forgive her. "I'll give you the next generation of hybrids" she said.
"You'll give us the next generation of hybrids?" Leoben repeated, in a doubtful tone.
"This is what you want isn't it – to breed?"
"It's not how we planned it though" he replied. "We wanted to mix him with us."
"But this is all you get" Kara hissed. "Take it, or go, get downloaded." She indicated three marines, that were aiming at him. He was in no position to argue.
"Kara, don't do this!" Lee objected. He held her arm, trying to get her to listen, bus she shrugged him off.
"My womb is my choice" she barked in response. "I do frakking love you Adama, and you love me, so your cylon protocols will have me impregnated with ease. And they will frak off you, me, and our baby. You get that?" she turned back to Leoben. "There will be no experiments on either hybrid. Ever. You promise that to me now."
"And you're sure I'll keep my word" Leoben mocked, but he quickly nodded, seeing the look on Kara's face. "You get half a year to get pregnant" he said. "We gave Number Nine a year, but our patience is in small supply lately. We'll be checking up on you. Would you please airlock me now?" the mockery was not gone from his voice.
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"You just said that to buy us time, right?" Lee asked after Leoben was disposed into space and they were marching down to the Commander's quarters to meet with Sam.
"That's tempting Adama" she replied. "Having a child is the last thing I want, and we can give up on the idea once we're sure they are not following us. Right now though, we do not have the luxury."
"Alright, so we'll have a baby. And then what are you planning?" Lee pursued. He just couldn't believe this was going to happen. That was beyond insane. Not that "beyond insane" was unusual with Kara.
"Right now I'm not planning anything..." she spat, and he cut in with a very eloquent remark:
"Right."
"Listen!" She turned to him, annoyed as rarely. "Right now I'm thinking how I am supposed to tell my husband about all this. You know, you may be the center of the world, and all our affairs may be revolving around you, but I used to have a life! And a part of that life is going to be turned upside down right now, because Starbuck is going to have to save Apollo's ass once more! So if you could give me a few moments to think! All by myself! Without your constant moaning and whining! Then maybe I would come up with an idea."
Lee tried to interrupt her several times during that speech, but he gave up eventually, and now that she finished – he just stared at her with his eyebrows raised.
"I hear that Leoben has been airlocked?" a calm, husky voice interrupted them, before Lee could come up with a worthy response. They turned to his father simultaneously.
"Yes, sir!" Starbuck answered first.
Adama's eyes assessed her, and then he nodded lightly. "Thank you. For your trust."
Starbuck sighed, taken aback by this show of exposure. But they were in the middle of Pegasus corridor, so there wasn't really room for the truth. "You earned it" she whispered. "Both of you."
"Good to hear that from you, Starbuck." The Admiral closed the subject, and turned all business. "But right now we need to focus on the possible battle ahead."
Lee sighed with relief. It was reassuring to see his father so in control again. Right after his secret was out in the open, he seemed a little off, but now he was "the Admiral" again.
"You may have killed those cylons that were onboard Pegasus" the older Adamam continued, "and we still have one more – Hot Dog – to airlock. But you didn't seriously think they will let you get away that easily?"
"Actually, sir" Lee decided he had to be the one to explain this. "We... well, Starbuck... bought us some time. I think we need to discuss it elsewhere though. And by the way" he added. "We have one more cylon, that was taken to the brig. We thought we needed you to decide her fate; we believe it's Number Two."
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Ellen Tigh said she was to be the one to oversee if the humans – namely Starbuck and Apollo – were carrying out the terms of the peace treaty. Her conditions were: (1) to be released from the brig and (2) her husband was not informed of what she was. The latter could not be complied with; her husband wasn't offended though – just shocked.
Lee tried to convince Kara to only pretend they were making babies. But in order to do that she had to include Samuel on the plan, which complicated matters in her marriage. She also had to move out of her and her husband's quarters and move in to Lee's, which complicated matters even more.
Lee, Kara and Will decided to keep the secret of the Adama's identity. Ellen Tigh promised not to reveal that to anyone in the Fleet, but who could trust Ellen Tigh? The Admiral started regretting not airlocking her the very same day he made that decision, but then his unfailing friend Saul helped him – blackmailing Ellen that he would leave her if she ever slipped up. The love between the Tighs was weird, because it definitely existed, though never resulted in children, so for cylon standards it was rather surprising.
Cally's and Galen's son was growing into a fine young man, and Hera was growing into a fine young Isis under the care of Maya, though only a few people knew their whereabouts. Admiral Adama tried to force the newly elected President Roslin to tell him the truth, but she was one stubborn woman.
The identity of a female cylon Number Twelve remained a mystery.
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"So. Are you satisfied now?"
"Please, Seven. Why the sarcasm? You're emulating human emotions now?"
"No. I'm simply asking – was it worth it? We lost almost all agents with this. We only have Number Threes undercover now, and none of them have ever been on our side."
"Threes and Twelves, don't forget. But Threes are so pragmatic, aren't they?"
"You're avoiding to answer my question, Four."
"I'm not avoiding anything, Seven. I was hoping this would not require that much sacrifice – I thought that simply adding Nine to the equation was enough to wake Starbuck's jealousy and start this – let's say: chain reaction – leading to the results we have now. But those two are stubborn, aren't they? They'd never get together if they weren't sledge-hammered to."
"Even though they love each other…"
"That's the absurdity of human emotions. Of love in particular. And the love between Starbuck and Apollo is the most…as they'd say – frakked up – in the Universe. Absurd. But now they have no choice. And we made that happen. Congratulations Seven."
"Well…I'll congratulate you once the next generation of hybrids is born."
"Oh, it will be. It will. Trust me."
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The End.
As this story came to a conclusion now, I would like to thank everyone for reading it. And great many thanks to all who reviewed – especially to: laurie31, LiMiYa, starbuck042786, Evilclone, Ammonite, Yadira, pilotlover, straprincess21, gray03, ash234 and Sairs J. You made me want to write more, and in some cases you even shaped this story.
Please, don't hesitate to say a few words now, I'll be happy with any comments. And I hope I'll make you happy with more of my stories in the future.
-yannik-