Kara.
Dear gods she was just a little girl.
"Is there a point to all this?" Lee asks coldly. "This is her journey remember?" Leoben asks in reply. "Her destiny. What you see are merely the stepping stones she took to complete it."
Lee turns to face him, anger radiating off of him in waves.
"What kind of destiny would ever be worth so much pain?" He asks through clenched teeth. "You were there, you saw what her mother did. What possible good could ever come of that?"
"Tell me Major, have you thought about what this place is at all?" Leoben asks.
Lee keeps his face blank. He's thought about nothing else.
"What if that's all it took for this bridge to open? What if for humanity's ultimate survival, all the gods asked was for one single sacrifice?"
Lee falters at that little revelation. He knows he would sacrifice himself for that particular goal without hesitation. But a simple death is one thing. What he doesn't understand is the twenty-eight years of continual heartbreak and aguish. Of feeling like, no matter what you did or might have done, it was never good enough. It does not make the least bit of sense to him.
"You don't believe in the gods," he counters weakly.
"I'm merely speaking in terms you'll understand."
Leoben walks to the edge of the bridge, Lee follows and looks down, and the vastness of the space below is something he can't find his mind can comprehend. It's endless. It's forever. He stumbles backward, finding he can't look anymore.
"What if that sacrifice led you to Earth?"
Earth, Lee thinks to himself. Everything always comes back to Earth.
"Why did it have to be her?" He asks.
"I suppose that's why the call it destiny Major. No one gets to choose."
Lee's eyebrow arches at that, his curiosity getting the best of him.
"Then what is mine?"
"That," Leoben starts cryptically. "Has yet to be determined."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
There are at a pyramid court. The crowd is deafening as it roars at the action displayed in front of them. Lee looks around, the energy of the people immediately taking hold. The last time he'd attended a pyramid game was the playoffs three years ago between Picon and Aerilon. He'd gotten the tickets in the biggest triad pot he'd ever won, and somehow managed to get leave in time to actually see the game.
This isn't a pro game. The logo in the middle of the court reads 'West Athenian High School.' He recalls that the school was indeed on the west end of Caprica City, literally on the other side of the tracks. His own alma mater had played them several times and he doesn't think ever missed a game in those days.
This game is a close one. The scoreboard reads 9-8. The two teams take no mercy on each other. There are elbows being thrown left and right and far more ruthless tackles than the pro game. He watches as one of the West Athenian players smashes a knee into the biggest member of the opposition. The goliath topples over and the home player leaps over his fallen form, catches a pass in midair, and slams the goal home.
The crowd irrupts around them and Lee can't help but jump out of his seat with the rest of them. The goal scorer has both her, yes her, fists in the air and the crowd starts the chant.
"Starbuck! Starbuck! Starbuck!"
Lee shoots a look to Leoben, who's looking back as if he expected this reaction. Of course he did.
"She's had that nickname long before it ever became a call sign," he answers Lee's unasked question.
Lee nods and sits back down. It shouldn't surprise him. He'd known Kara was one hell of a pyramid player before she ever became a pilot. And he also knows that pyramid teams tended to give each other nicknames similar to pilots getting call signs. He remembers what her father called her, and knows Kara had picked her own.
"Her mother never approved of this. She'd always known Kara was meant for more, but she could have gone pro," Leoben says. "There are scouts everywhere in this crowd. From Picon, Libran, Scorpia, Gemenon, Leonis, and Caprica. Half the teams in the league wanted a shot at her and they all have contracts waiting. Right after this game."
Leoben's eyes move back to the game and Lee's attention follows.
"Flying was second nature to her. A natural born instinct. But the game, that was her passion."
Lee watches her on the court, playing the game like she flew her viper. Never giving ground, never backing down. Running circles around everyone because she was always miles ahead. She's so aggressive and yet somehow makes it look so graceful. He smirks as he notices what number she's wearing. Unlucky, cancerous, frak up Kara Thrace appropriately chose to wear the number thirteen. He laughs silently to himself. That number also means so much more when you really think about it.
"She would have been happy if she made it," Lee says more to himself than his companion.
"Is that what you think?
"Being a colonies famous pyramid player over a frakked up viper jockey?" Lee replies. "I do."
Leoben grins. Lee is really starting to hate the feeling that there's a continual joke he's not being let in on.
"We both know that isn't true," the cylon says.
Lee swallows dryly. He knows it isn't. He knows what's going to happen to her. He remembers now. He'd just wanted to think of her as being capable of such a feeling. Right now, in this moment, with the crowd at her back and the ball in her hand, he knows she truly is happy.
He finds himself cursing the gods because he's just counting down the seconds until they take it all away from her.
"If she had followed this path," Leoben says. "If she'd gotten her dream. All would be lost."
"Don't you think you're overstating it?" Lee asks.
"Let me put it in terms you'll understand," Leoben answers. "You never would have survived as long as you have without her. Humanity never would have survived this long without her. Think of it that way."
Lee reflects on that silently for awhile. Truth be told he can't imagine surviving the battle with the cylons without Starbuck on his wing. And truth be told, never mind the fact the he feels like he can't trust her with his heart, he can't imagine surviving life with out Kara by his side.
She scores another goal. The crowds intensity is on the brink of madness. Lee chews the inside of his cheek because he can see what's coming. The goliath she had so easily dispatched, the one she had humiliated earlier, is stalking her every move. He's biding his time, waiting for his opening.
Lee can feel Leoben's eyes on him, waiting to gage whatever reaction he might give.
Kara takes another flying leap toward the goal, and goliath has his opening. He grabs her mid flight, snatching her right leg in his massive grip, and twisting that leg in a direction it was never meant to go. He lets her drop to the ground, and the crowd is instantly hushed. Kara writhes on the court, clutching at her knee and growling in pain.
Another dream struck down in the name of destiny. He is already sick to death of the word.
Lee sets his jaw and turns to face his companion, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, but Leoben only smiles.
"All the gods ask," he says. "Is sacrifice."