Baltar spun about, taking in all the death and destruction around him. For a split second he thought he was back on Caprica, just after the Cylon attack, running for his life for some safe place that didn't exist. But then he took a good look around, at the shredded tents and the bodies, human and Cylon alike that littered the ground and he knew, instinctively, that this wasn't Caprica. No, this was much worse; it was the nightmare he had created almost single-handedly.

"Hello! Hello! Is there anybody out there? Hello!" he cried out desperately, his voice sounding different, even to his own ears. Something was just so wrong about it all. Then he heard it, loud and clear. It was the side of a baby crying.

"Hello! Is somebody there?" he called again, whirling about in another desperate circle and trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

"Look closer, Gaius," a voice came from behind him, so loud and clear, but more than then that, familiar. He turned about and saw her standing there, clad in the same sexy red dress she'd worn a dozen times before when she'd come to him.

It hit him suddenly, the red dress. Looking about quickly again he realized that everything around him, down to his own hands, looked drained of color. But not her, no, she was bright and vibrant, like he always saw her.

"It….it's you, isn't it? You've been away….away for…for…so long," he stammered out.

"No Gaius, I've always been with you," she purred softly, moving close enough now to run a hand gently down his face. At the feel of her touch his eyes slid shut. It was so familiar, and yet, at the same time so different. Not at all like he experienced every day with….

"Gina," she supplied, as though reading his mind. His eyes flew open, surprise all over his face. "Don't act so surprised, Gaius. Did you think I wouldn't notice her? They planned it all along. To come between us," she said cryptically.

There was no mistaking the angry accusation in her voice; he just wasn't quite sure what brought it on. "But you're….you're just in my head," he babbled. "How can someone come between me and someone that's in my head?"

At his words, the gentleness left her touch and he suddenly found the air being choked out of his lungs as her hand slid around his throat and squeezed.

"Does this feel like I'm just in your head, Gaius?"

He struggled to speak, finally managing to rasp out a harsh, "No!"

Almost immediately, that vice-like grip ceased and he was falling to his knees gasping for air. He heard her footsteps as she moved away from him. She paused as he looked up, turning to meet his eyes. "I've followed you through the stars to bring us together again, it's what God wants. He recognizes real love. But it's up to you to decide which is the right path to follow."

He opened his mouth to speak, but before anything could come out the baby's shrill cries drew his attention away. He was startled to realize that he'd completely forgotten about the child throughout the whole interchange with Six. He staggered to his feet, looking towards where Six had stood and saw that she was gone. Fighting off the feelings of loss and loneliness that suddenly threatened to overwhelm him he returned to looking for the source of the cries.

He wasn't entirely alone, he realized, as he finally pinpointed the direction of the cries and rushed towards them. Frantically he began looking and at last saw it, a small movement, the kick of a leg, from within the protective circle of a dead woman's embrace. He knelt down and rolled the dark haired woman's body onto its back and saw the crying child's face for the first time. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard Six's voice whisper a single word, "Hera."

With a start, Baltar came awake, looking about him with the same panicked gaze he'd looked over the decimated camp with. This time, however, he saw the familiar sight of his bedroom on Colonial One. With a sigh of relief he realized it'd all been a dream, nothing more.

"Bad dream, Gaius?"

He looked up in surprise, not realizing she was in the room with him. But it wasn't her, not the one from his mind, his dream, it was Gina.

"Gaius?" she said questioningly.

She was watching him clinically, as though he was some kind of lab experiment. Why had he never noticed it before?

The scene at the Temple was total chaos when Jammer and Tyrol arrived. People were already trying to help the moaning, crying wounded, but their efforts were hampered by the family and friends of the victims wailing over the bodies of the dead. Tyrol looked searchingly at Jammer for an answer; the guilty look of horror on the younger man's face said it all. But looks weren't enough; Tyrol needed to hear the words.

"How long have the guns been there?"

"The Colonel had them moved here last week. But he swore to me….to all of us it would only be a few days."

"They knew they were here," Tyrol retorted angrily.

"I knew it was wrong….I knew it, but…….." Jammer trailed off, unable to voice any more when he saw a familiar face among the grieving. "Oh Gods…Duck?"

The heartbroken Viper pilot didn't even hear him, too focused on the body he held in his arms, tears rolling unnoticed down his face.

"Nora," Tyrol whispered as a wave of panic washed over him. If Nora was here then….

"Galen!" Cally's voice cried out and seconds later she came running into his arms.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, pulling her impossibly close, relieved to feel her alive in his arms.

"It's all my fault," she cried. "I wanted to come to the temple…..I wanted to say a prayer for…for James," she choked out the name they'd given their child before his burial. "I begged Nora to come with me….I never thought…."

She couldn't go on any longer, she was crying so hard. Grief for Nora, James, all the pain and suffering they'd experienced since the Cylons had arrived bubbling to the surface at once. The two were completely oblivious as Jammer crossed the short distance to where Duck was still clutching Nora's body.

"By the Gods, Duck, I'm so sorry," he murmured, feeling utterly useless.

"You're sorry?!" the devastated man bit out. "Sorry! You knew those frakking guns were here! You knew and you didn't even warn anybody!"

"Duck…."

"Don't deny it! I know you're one of them!"

"This wasn't supposed to happen, they should have been moved already," Jammer tried to explain. Duck wasn't listening to him though; he was still too caught up in his grief.

Jammer backed slowly away from the scene, taking it all in. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't why he'd joined the resistance. He'd known hiding the weapons here was wrong, yet he hadn't argued hard enough to stop it from happening. Hundreds of people came through this temple, maybe even thousands. If the priestess had been holding ceremony….. He choked back the bile rising in his throat at the thought.

He ran from the tent, no destination in mind. He ran but couldn't escape the cries of grief and pain that seemed to follow him no matter where he went. At last, he found himself in front of the message board in the marketplace, staring at one of the Cylon ads urging humans to enlist in their 'New Caprica Police Force.' He never knew he was being watched.

Gaeta had listened intently to the arguments coming from within Baltar's office following the attack at the temple. The meetings were happening more and more often as the resistance movement among the humans continued to grow. Baltar was the lone human representative, with D'Ana Biers, Sharon Valerii, Caprica Six, Simon, Doral, Gina, and a pair of Brother Cavils rounding out the cadre.

"The incident at the temple was most unfortunate, Baltar, but our people weren't to blame," Doral declared.

"Incident?! Unfortunate?!" Baltar babbled out. "How can you say that? Surely you're not blaming us….."

Gaeta cringed, wondering yet again how he could have helped this man to become president of the colonies. He may have had his disagreements with how Roslin had run things, but compared to Baltar's ineffectual leadership she'd been a gift from the Gods.

"Yes, it was an unfortunate incident…" Doral began but Baltar, surprisingly, cut him off.

"There were innocent men, women and children in that temple! And your….your….your metal thugs just mowed them all down!"

Doral's eyes narrowed at him. "If your people hadn't broken our unwritten truce by hiding guns there this entire incident could have been avoided. Your people violated the sanctity of their own temple. It was the actions of your own people that caused their deaths."

"My people…"

"Hid guns inside your temple," Doral reiterated spitefully. "Guns meant to kill Cylons. You didn't really think an offense like that would go unpunished did you?"

"I think we're losing sight of what is important here," one of the Brother Cavils said. "We need to use this incident to send out message that this kind of insurrection won't be tolerated. Members of the New Caprica Police are already out gathering up known resistance leaders."

"Taking more of their people may raise the number of incidents," Sharon argued. "I'm not sure this is the wisest course of action…."

Gaeta shook himself loose from the memories of that meeting, remembering that it wasn't safe for him to be walking through the settlement without paying attention to his surroundings. His fellow humans saw him as being nothing more than a collaborator for remaining alongside Baltar following the invasion. Although it hurt to see the looks of hatred from people he'd previously thought of as his friends it was much safer that way. He had never been a fighter, not like the Colonel or Starbuck. No, he was nothing more than a glorified computer technician, but that was okay. He would use his brains to help the resistance, even if nobody ever knew the risks he took to do it.

Passing through the encampment as though he was wandering aimlessly without anyone being wiser when he stopped to stroke Jack, the camp dog. Squatting down in front of him, he scratched his ears and muttered to the dog.

"Sorry Jack, I'd hoped that last time was going to be the last time."

With a quick look around to see if anyone was paying attention to him, he surreptitiously reached down and flipped the dog's yellow dish over. The Resistance needed to know what was coming for them.

The darkness of his cell had been overwhelming the first couple of weeks he'd been inside the detention center. His mind had tricked him over every sound, no matter how minute. For awhile he told himself that it was the resistance coming to save him, or that the old man had returned at last. But he'd only been fooling himself.

Eventually they began pulling him from his cell for interrogation, usually by one of the Brother Cavils or the Dorals. That's when he realized that next to the pain they inflicted on his body, the darkness had been a blessing. Now his cage was kept lit up night and day, a cruel, unrelenting, blinding light only made worse by the taking of his eye.

His eye. He reached up and touched the piece of gauze covering the now empty socket. How many days had it been since one of the chrome jobs had plucked his eye right from his head? Reached out with that claw-like hand and just popped it right out until it dropped to the floor.

Brother Cavil had laughed at his screams of agony, suggesting that maybe they should take the other one too. He had taken a step towards where Tigh's body lay crumpled upon the floor of the interrogation cell. Tigh hated to admit it, even to himself, but he'd cringed away in fear at that moment, pleas for his other eye to be spared on the tip of his tongue. But it wasn't until the Cylon's foot came down on that eyeball lying on the floor that Tigh realized the monster's true intent.

His eye. Gone.

Now he lay in the brightness of his cell, trying to cower away from the light as he marked off what he thought was another day of captivity on the wall. He'd hid it as best he could, the tic marks counting out the days of hell he'd spent there. He counted them off slowly in his mind, twenty-three days. It felt like so much longer. As he heard footsteps approaching the door of his cell one thought filled his mind, the old man had better return soon because he wanted to live long enough to see all those skin-job sons of bitches destroyed.

"How are things on the Pegasus?" William asked as he poured himself a glass of water and joined Sharon on the couch of his quarters. She'd visited him nearly every day since leaving the detention block and moving onto the Pegasus. Although he'd never admit it to anyone else he had actually grown closer to her than any other person in the fleet since the jump from New Caprica. The way they talked now, it was like having the Boomer back that he had known from before the Cylons had ever destroyed the twelve colonies.

"I think Lee's going a little overboard on his mission to 'protect' me from the rest of the crew," she answered with a small, sad smile. It was odd, ever since she'd put her plan in motion to retrieve her daughter from the planet it seemed the Admiral had become the closest thing she had to a friend in the fleet besides Helo.

And she wasn't really sure what to call Helo, friend, comrade, protector, lover. He'd been all of those things to her at one time or another. They were working on their relationship again, seeing if they could salvage things between them.

"And I don't think Dee appreciates his efforts much," she added with a frown, her mind flashing back to the uncomfortable meal in the Commander's quarters the evening before.

William nodded thoughtfully, not really surprised. "What about the repairs? How are those going?"

"Almost finished, but she wasn't in as bad of shape as the Galactica."

He nodded and they fell into silence, both wishing to discuss something with the other and neither knowing where to begin once the small talk had ended. Sharon allowed her mind to wander back to the Helo question. What would their future hold?

It'd been so much easier when she'd allowed her anger to control her emotions. She just shut everything down but her need to hurt someone else as badly as she hurt inside. It was what had helped her survive those first weeks after she'd been forced to believe her child was dead. And afterwards, she used that anger to protect herself from feeling too much about anything or anyone, even Helo.

"Sharon?" William's voice cut into her thoughts.

"I'm…sorry. I was thinking about something else," she confessed sheepishly.

"So I see," he smiled. "I was saying that…well….I thought you should be the first one to know."

"What?" she asked breathlessly, sitting up quickly, alertness flooding her body. Was he going to tell her that they'd finally heard from their people on New Caprica? Would she finally be getting closer to reclaiming her child?

Sensing where her mind was going with his faltering pronouncement, he hastened to finish. "I'm promoting Helo. I want him on board Galactica as my new XO."

She did her best to keep her disappointment from her voice when she responded. "That…that's wonderful. I'm sure he'll be very happy to accept."

"But?"

"No buts. I think we both know that Helo was never cut out to be a CAG," she grinned. "Even though he did seem to enjoy giving the orders instead of getting them for a change, I don't think he was really happy doing it. He never wanted to be a Viper pilot."

"He picked it up fast."

"He's a survivor, like we all are. Adapt and overcome, that should be the mantra of everyone in this fleet."

"I wanted to offer you the chance to come back to the Galactica with him. If you'd like to…."

Sharon let out a bemused chuckle as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on knees and looking at him. "I was actually here today to ask you if I could return to the Galactica. Permanently."

It was William's turn to be caught off guard. He'd planned on using Helo's promotion as an incentive to get Sharon back on the Galactica. It wasn't that he wouldn't have promoted Helo regardless of her decision though, he was a good officer and William needed someone solid and level-headed as his second in command. Especially now, since every day that passed without any of his Raptor patrols reporting contact with the planet was another day closer to being forced to attempt a blind rescue that was essentially a suicide mission.

"Why? What made you change your mind now?" he couldn't keep himself from asking.

"Because I know you, and I know that you're going to go back for our people whether there's contact or not from the planet."

"That's suicide," he protested, even though moments before he'd been thinking just that thought.

"It doesn't matter. Not to you, not now. I can feel it every time we talk; you're still blaming yourself for jumping the ships and leaving them behind."

He was quiet, leaning forward himself now, almost mirroring her own position. But instead of looking at her with the same earnest expression that was on her face, he let his head hang. She was right. Every day his mind was filled with the thoughts that he'd betrayed his people, left them to be slaughtered while he cut and run. It was the first thought in his mind when he awoke in the morning and the last before he dropped off to sleep each night. It was the thought that woke him up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, dreams of the people he cared about suffering and dying, cursing his name as they did. Saul, Laura, the Chief, Kara, by the Gods, Kara…..

"Whether or not we go back after we've made contact, or if we go in firing blind, we don't stand much of a chance if the man in charge can't forgive himself. If you hadn't have given the order to jump…..humanity would have just stopped. In a single instant, everything we've been fighting for would have been for nothing."

William let her words penetrate his mind, desperately praying they were true, knowing deep in his heart she was right. It was better to lose the battle for the sake of the war, and their war was just beginning anew.

A/N: Apologies for the long delay in updating, my computer and Fanfic haven't wanted to play well with each other lately. A tweak here and an upgrade there and hopefully we'll be back in business on a more regular basis from here on in.