A Rush of Blood to the Head

"My city's still breathing but barely its true,

Through buildings gone missing like teeth."

-The Weakerthans


DISCLAIMER: Not mine. None of it. Blast. The title is from the Coldplay song of the same name.

SUMMARY: Basically an AU season three. Deals with the Resistance, Kara's capture by the Cylons, and the aftermath.

WARNINGS: Contents may be hot. Some cursing, violence, disturbing imagery, maybe even a character death or two if I'm feeling frisky. And I am feeling frisky.

NOTES: My favorite character is Starbuck, of course. So if you don't like Starbuck just go jump off a bridge, I mean, don't read this story.

REVIEWS: Yes, thank you.


Five months ago: Day 37 of the Cylon Occupation

"Twelve more settlers were 'taken into custody' by the toasters this morning. The frakking president gave the usual reason… treason, terrorism, conspiring to destroy the fragile relations between our benevolent benefactors and peace-loving settler bla, bla, bla. Meanwhile thirty-two others just vanish into thin air. Baltar still isn't even acknowledging the other disappearances."

"The count's up to almost three hundred now!"

"Did you hear Baltar at the press conference today? He actually suggested they just got up and wandered off all on their own!"

"Baltar's the frakking toaster's talking monkey. Jumps when they frakking say frog."

"Taken into custody my ass. They're all dead or wish they were."

Grim and worried faces littered the inside of the crowded tent listening to the even more grim and worrying news. Though the occupants of the gloomy tent were arranged in a loose circle with no physical position of power, the unconscious focus of the group was an auburn-haired woman sitting cross-legged on a cot. The woman carried an aura of authority and calm that labeled her leader. Throughout the discussion almost everyone at one time or another stole a glance at the leader, checking almost as a small child for reassurance from a beloved parent.

Laura Roslin, prophesied dying leader, mother of none, mother of all, the true president of the twelve colonies, raised one small hand for quiet.

"Any of the missing actually involved in the resistance?"

"Yes. Two of them were ours. They were new, they didn't have any dangerous information."

"Theyare all ours," the President paused to let that sink in, to remind them all they weren't just fighting for the resistance, for the military, for their families…they were fighting for the human race, what was left of it anyway.

Roslin continued, "These arrests and disappearances are becoming more frequent. The people are starting to panic; some are starting to believe cylon propaganda. We must have the support of the public."

Galen Tyrol nodded in agreement. Seeing where Roslin was going, the Chief asked, "Do we have any intel on what's happening to those taken?"

Roslin turned to the person beside her, "Mr. Gaeta, if you would?"

The former military officer turned president's aide turned spy and informer kept his head high but avoided eye contact with anyone. He knew his position here was tenuous. Most saw him as little more than flunky for the hated traitor president. It would take little reason for the people in the room or the cylons to make him disappear. But he was determined. He'd just wanted to make a difference. He hadn't seen what Baltar really was until New Caprica. He'd been in a position to see the real Gauis Baltar and it wasn't pleasant. Now he knew. Now he could make a difference, that is if he didn't disappear first.

As Mr. Gaeta began, a blonde figure slipped into the tent and at a gesture by Roslin joined the President on the cot. Though the Occupation had taken its toil everyone, Starbuck appeared to be especially worn. Kara and Sam had from the first day of the occupation gone into hiding. The cylons, Leoben, had shown an unhealthy amount of interest in the former viper hotshot. The weeks of hiding on top of Sam's condition and the resistance was taking its toil. Her husband's illness hadn't worsened any in the month since Doc Cottle had seen him, in fact, the troubling clamminess of skin and dizzy spells had passed. But the cough, the cough was still there. There was a certain desperation around her mouth, a hollowed hungry look to her checks, and a whipcord tenseness in her shoulders. But it was Starbuck's eyes, filled with a wild determination and constant fire, which were most disturbing.

During the past month, Roslin and Starbuck had had the opportunity to work closely together. Planning and fighting and worrying, they'd gotten to know each other a little, each able to see what others, namely the Adamas, so admired. Laura took in Kara's countenance, briefly squeezed her hand, and returned to Gaeta's briefing.

"Two days ago I overhead Baltar talking to a six. The detainees are being taken to a facility about twenty miles from here. I don't know what sort of defenses it has. And I don't know the exact location."

"Can you get the location?" Starbuck pierced Gaeta with an unwavering gaze. She already had the beginnings of a mad plan stewing in her brain, if he could find the facility.

"I will get it."


Current Day: Six months after the Cylon Invasion of New Caprica

Breathe. All she had to do was breathe. Breathe in quickly, deeply the cold, blood-dyed water and she could be free. She could choose to be free, to die. She could choose nothing else in this place; she could control nothing else. Not her supposed destiny. Not her life or death. Not even her body. But breathe now and she could control her death. As if aware of Starbuck's thoughts, the cylon yanked her hair up, pulling her head out of the red water and her control.

Breathe. Just Breathe.

"All this has happened before, all this will happen again," Leoben crouched down until he was almost eye level to the gasping woman. The cylon almost tenderly brushed the hair out of Starbuck's face, courtesy of his earlier attentions blood from several cuts on her face stained his fingertips.

"Why do you make me do this, Kara? You know I don't want to have to hurt you. Why do you make me punish you? I love you so much but even my love pales in comparison to God's love. You will accept our love, Kara, you will accept your destiny," the cylon now sitting on the floor, pulled her limp body close to his, and rocked the woman to sleep.