A/N: This chapter is short, but I'm hoping to get the next chapter up quickly. No promises. I need to know what you guys think about this chapter. It took a lot out of me, and the surprises may come back to bite me later. Thank you again for all your reviews, they mean so much to me!! So please continue to hit that review button when you are done!

Chapter 17: We Are Only Human

"Can they really be the manifestations of the Lords of Kobol?" Cassandra asks her friend.

"I don't think I'm the one you should be asking," Isadora says glancing at Andreas. "I know no more than you do; maybe you should ask Ares the questions you're dying to get the answers to."

"But Ares is the God of War," Athos replies looking at his youngest son in shock.

"Would you not agree that we are at war father?" The young man asks, tilting his head to the side. "And trust me when I say it could very well be the last one we'll ever fight."

"I guess it would be too much to ask if Athena was on our side," Bill says into the ensuing silence.

"I believe symmetry would be working against us on that one," Ares chuckles. "Hermes can't be sure, but he has felt her presence amongst the machines. He is unable to discern if she is a cylon or not."

"I don't know about anybody else, but I'm feeling completely overwhelmed," Laura says to the room. "Maybe it would be best if we broke up for the time being, and allowed everyone to process the events of the last few hours. I'm sure that a few of you could use some time alone, just to reconnect with each other." She directs this comment to Cassandra with a side glance to Andreas.

"I believe that would probably be the best course of action," Cassandra acknowledges with a grateful smile. "There are plenty of guest rooms available. Let's regroup here at 0900."

Everyone nodded and began to file out of the room. As Bill went to allow Laura to proceed him out of the room, she stops him with a hand on his arm.

"I'll catch up with you in a moment," she whispers. He looks at her questioningly, and throws a look at the last remaining occupant of the room. Isadora had sank down into a chair, and the fragile air that surrounded her was enough to send him on his way. Laura sighs, closes the door behind him and turns to face the woman sitting at the table.

"I'm guessing there is something you've not wanted to share with the others in the room," Laura says coming to sit down next to her.

"I don't expect you to understand," Isadora replies in a broken voice.

"Then that means you know the Council would disapprove; so I'm guessing that I would be lesser of two evils," Laura says with a chuckle and an understanding look.

"Ares has lied about Athena," she replies glancing to Laura.

"He knows more than he's letting on?" Laura asks perplex.

"Yes. We know she is a cylon, and she is currently aboard the Libra," she says in a rush. Laura sits back stunned. She knows how these people feel about the cylons, and for Isadora to have one on her ship was unbelievable.

"Why is she on your ship?" Laura asks. She tries for an impartial tone and is surprised that she managed to pull it off.

"It seems as if some one helped her infiltrate the UAG network, we are only human after all," she responds with a dry chuckle. "It also seems as if she has managed to have a child with one of us, and I couldn't do what was demanded of me by the vows I took when I became a member of the Council."

"You couldn't kill the hybrid or the mother as the Council would have expected you to

had you been with them," Laura acknowledges. With a slight shake of her head, Isadora confirms Laura's statement. "I assume there is a really good reason."

"How do you kill your son's child?" She asks with tears in her eyes. "How was I suppose to kill my own grandchild?"

&&&&

"How did you survive?" Kara asks Devon after the three of them had gotten comfortable in her private quarters. She had been starving and took a few moments to procure them all something to eat and drink. Devon was sprawled in the large easy chair facing her and Lee on the couch.

"I'm guessing you found out I was on medical leave, and stranded on Earth when all hell broke loose," he replies lifting a questioning eyebrow at her.

"Sam had made it to the Monterey," she confirms in a small tight voice. "He was the one to tell me that you had broken your leg, and had been reassigned to the Virgo for a later departure. But that still doesn't explain how you got here."

"Well it seems as if the Gods move in more than just mysterious ways," Devon replies with a smirk. "Sam had to leave really early to make the shuttle, so I told him not to wake me, and I would see him when he got back. That was when I had my first vision," he says; his eyes getting a far and distant look to them.

"I literally heard a voice tell me I needed to pay attention, and then flashes of horrifying scenes exploded in my mind," he says with a shudder. "I saw people dying by the billions, and a huge fight around the LG points. I saw the return of the Capricorn and Pieces; the struggle to free the Sagittarius, and several civilian ships. Then the bombardment of the planet's surface by hundreds of nuclear weapons." He stops, tears standing out in his emerald eyes.

"Then I was surrounded by the quietness that is left behind after the world that you know has been totally devastated. The voice that I heard in the beginning came back, said that what I've seen will come to pass and that my people will need me to guide them more than ever. I cried out; What people; who would be left? At first there was no answer, and I felt myself being drawn back into the oblivion of sleep."

"And then more images blasted across my subconscious. The Libra blazing back into the atmosphere, Isadora Agathon herself piloting the Prometheus to pick up stranded survivors from the UAG academy in the Venice Beach. Her and I coming face to face, and hearing her say, Thank Gods I will be able to deliver you back to your mother."

Devon stops and takes a deep breath; memories clouding his eyes and bringing deep a frown to his face. He sat quietly, body language tense, unyielding. He looks up into his sister's eyes, and the feelings of regret overwhelm him.

"I missed you so much," he says in a broken whisper. "I never realized how much you're apart of me; and what drove that home more than anything was knowing that there was someone else out there to take my place in your life," Devon says glancing briefly at Lee.

"I'd never want to come between the two of you," Lee responds to the heartbreak he can hear in Devon's voice.

"No; it's alright," Devon replies with a small smile. "That was before I understood what my and your place meant. I still don't have all the answers; I don't think any one person is suppose to; but I do know what the endless possibilities are, and where they might lead. It's a large burden knowing what is coming and having very little ability to protect the people you love from it."

"But I digress," he says shaking his head; once again the philosophical side had jumped in and taken over. "Everything pretty much happened just as I saw it; and trust me when I say it was enough to unnerve me. Isadora explained that the Libra has a communication problem that interferes with her ability to receive and transmit messages anywhere but on board ship. That was the reason why the Libra didn't respond initially," he stops when he sees his sister about to interrupt him.

"Then what made her respond?" Kara asks looking extremely puzzled. "The distress signal was aborted after we had jumped with the Sagittarius in tow."

Devon smiles at that and tilts his head to the side. "You know that Hermes is the messenger of the Gods; but did you know he is the Guide of the Dead and more importantly the God of Sleep?" Seeing them both looking confused, he rushes forward. "She tells me that in a dream I TOLD her to come back to Earth and pick up survivors from the cataclysm. Isadora said the dream was so real that she immediately had the crew start the jump sequence that would take them back to Earth."

Kara and Lee glance at each other, looking both stunned and shaken. Devon catches there shared looks and burst into laughter. "Yes I know how the two of you met," he says laughing harder. "Do you really think the Gods leave everything up to chance. I've told you that we're all interconnected through destiny, and bridging time and space to bring you two together was an almost insurmountable task. We've been given the tools we need to accomplish our part, but how we do it is up to us alone."

"You did this?" Lee asks pointing between himself and Kara.

"No Apollo, I just gave the two of you neutral ground; you two did the rest," Hermes replies with a chuckle. "It still comes down to free will. I could put you together, but you had to decide how to proceed. And it is not always consciously that I DO things; sometimes I simply think or wish about them, and it happens."

"So you managed to get yourself rescued, and then what?" Kara asks. She can tell by the look in her brother's eyes that his story was far from over.

"We needed to find the rest of the UAG," he says simply. "Isadora felt that I needed to know some things, so she spent almost four days giving me a very detailed history lesson. Trust me when I say that I needed another full week to comprehend everything she told me, and deal with the fallout."

"The fallout?" Kara asks puzzled.

"One Andreas Dimitri Thalia," Devon replies with a grin.

"Cassandra and Athos' love child," Kara says with a sneer.

"Don't hate him; he's just as much a pawn in this as you and I," Devon says with a stern look.

"So are you telling me that the two of you are buddies?" She asks looking at him closely.

"Kara he's our brother; we all share the same parents," Devon says on a sigh. "He had something we didn't have in having both parents around to raise and love him; but what he didn't have was you and I. He didn't have a sibling to bond with or be best friends with; and he was constantly compared to the wonder twins. That's not easy to deal with. But to answer your question, yes we are friends, and more importantly, we're brothers. Give him a chance before lumping in the same category as our mother."

"I can't promise you anything," she says with a smirk. Lee reaches over and lightly grabs her hand rubbing his thumb over her palm. She smiles at the sensations that little gesture causes, and settles back against the couch to hear what else her brother has to say.

"So what exactly is it that we need to do?" She asks him.

"I wish I knew for certain," he replies with a shrug. "What I do know is at times vague and cloudy. I know that if we don't get it right, that is it for humanity; every single man, woman and child will be gone from the universe. I know it revolves around 12 people on both sides, human and cylon. We have been betrayed before, and we'll b e betrayed again. Same goes for them.

"Who has betrayed us, and what did they do?" Artemis asks sitting up straighter. She doesn't like the idea of someone purposely setting up humanity to fail, it goes against her deep seed ideals of equality and justice.

"Are you sure this is something you wish to know?" He asks her almost casually. "I've found that sometimes ignorance is truly bliss."

"But can we afford to be blissful?" Apollo asks. "There is a lot at stake here, and the more information we have the better prepared we'll be."

"I would have to agree with Lee," Kara replies.

"The first person to betray us was Rand Thrace," Devon says, a flicker of pain crossing his handsome face.

"Dad?" Kara whispers.

"Human jealousy is a powerful motivator," he says in response to her broken question. "When he left, his plan was to take us and relinquish us to the cylons. My getting sick was what saved us. What we were told was no where near the truth. He couldn't keep up his pace with me coughing up blood and vomiting in the back seat. He stopped at a drug store to get some sleeping pills so I'd sleep until her got to where he was going."

"A lady going into the drug store saw us in the back seat; me curled in you lap, you with my blood on your hands. She called the police, and when they arrived they wouldn't let Rand near us. They had us both rushed to the nearest hospital and it was only a matter of time before the UAG military police was apprised of the situation. Cassandra and Athos, as well as the Council of Twelve rushed to that little hospital in Idaho to asses the situation. By the time they got there, Rand Thrace was long gone."

"The police weren't holding him or anything?" Lee questions confused as to why they would not keep a close eye on him.

"The doctors confirmed that I had pneumonia, and that there was nothing wrong with Kara. They figured that he was just an ignorant parent who didn't know when to get his child to a doctor. He was allowed to see us, but there was no way he could remove me from the ICU, and Kara had the foresight to hide."

"It wasn't foresight," Kara gasps. Her head snaps up and she looks at her brother with something akin to wonder. "I remember the hospital now. I was asleep in a room further down the hall. The doctors were worried because I wouldn't talk and they wanted to be certain that I wasn't sick as well. I was dreaming and you told me to get up and hide. I argued with you about it, and you told me to hide now. You were getting so angry at me that I was getting scared, so I came to your bed, and hid under there."

"You hid right under his nose," Devon chuckles. "He had decided that if he couldn't take both of us, he could at least take you. Thank Gods you listened for once in your life. The next person to betray us was on your side," he replies looking at Lee.

"Would you be referring to Dr. Gaius Baltar?" Apollo asks quizzically.

"Yes," Devon replies simply. "Though his betrayal is not premeditated like Rand's, his continual efforts to cover it up makes him no less guilty. He crippled humanity on the side of the colonials, and left the UAG with no clear destination."

"And what betrayals have the cylons suffered?" Kara asks into the silence.

"So far we have not felt the effects of their betrayals, but we will. And there are more devastating things heading our way. People we love and trust will be caught in the middle, and we could possibly loose them forever," he says looking deeply into his sister's eyes.

"You know more than you're telling," she says, still able to read him after all the time they'd spent apart.

"Yes," he replies quietly.

"What; what is it?" Artemis asks.

"I have looked into our futures," Hermes replies. "I have seen what no man should ever have to see. I have seen the destruction of all of our people; and worse still, I have seen the death of my friend, and my sister. I have seen myself alone, wandering the universe on the wings of Pegasus, the last testament to a race gone into the oblivion."

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