Lie to me…
(Standard disclaimers apply. I own nothing)
The world started to explode and he knew.
No, it had nothing to do with his occasional visions. The guiding light that drove him from despair to hope, disgust to belief.
Bombs were exploding.
Vipers were skimming the city.
The humans would not leave without attempting to free their prisoners.
And Anders, alive, would not leave without finding his wife.
It did not take a mind with the effective capabilities of a computer to tally up the situation and what it meant.
It was over.
Anders' wife.
As if he could possibly understand the quixotic mixture of arrogance, vulnerability, intelligence, and wonder that /he/ had seen in Kara Thrace.
He saw her.
He knew her.
It continued to perplex him that she did not see him.
Sometimes it even hurt.
There was a time when she had. He had been about to die. Blown out an airlock.
They'd locked eye to eye and he'd /felt/ the strength of their connection.
Felt it beyond bone, beyond thought, beyond everything.
She was denying it. That had to be the reason.
Just time. It made sense. If she could just be with him, see him, then she'd know. She'd know just like he had.
But time was almost gone...
He'd run to the home he'd created for them. Perfect in detail for her. Rushed down stairs and found her seeking to escape with Kasey.
Their daughter that should have been.
He'd blocked her. Four months of attack and defense, move and counter move, meant that she knew well that she could not force past him.
Time was running out.
Kara was running out.
So he asked her.
And the disgust and rebellious subservience in her face was plan to read. One didn't have to have a computer for a mind to see...
But? She said it. And it was enough. He was a Cylon. A man born of circuits and metal.
But he could pretend.
Pretend she'd meant it. Pretend that this moment would last forever.
And then he kissed her and her breath was hesitant against his lips. It seemed to take an aching eternity to touch her. Every second. Every millisecond.
Surely she felt this too!
Time was running out.
So he told her. Told her that he'd remember this forever, knowing that
forever would have to last him. Maybe a very long time. Forever would be a loop memorized in his mind to replay again and again.
And he would.
The taste of her skin. The precise degree of the warmth of it. The way her heart beat had increased and the various variations of her breathing pattern.
Everything.
She didn't understand.
The knife in his stomach was eloquent proof of that.
Still.
As he lay dying, ready for the utter agony that download had become after she'd killed him time and time and time again?
He did still have that moment to relive. The light in her hair, the pressure of her fingertips...
Time was running out...