"Your hybrid said I was the harbinger of death, that I would lead us all to our end."

She had seen the horror pass over his face as the words came out, then his eyes turned to stone and she knew he was lost to her. He had just shut down, like the machine he always was, operational just operating at half power.

"If that's me sitting there, then what am I????" She yelled at him as he walked away. She really wanted to know what she was, if he didn't know who would? "You might not like what you find," his words echoed in her mind. She didn't like what she found at all.

The dog tags were cold in her hand, but not as cold as his reaction. She had disappointed so many people, but Leoben had never given up on her no matter how many times she killed him or beat him or ignored him. He was a believer, now all his belief was gone. She shifted the weight of the tags in her hands as he ran away, and then put them safely in her lapel pocket.

Somehow this all felt as if she had come full circle. Finding what is more than likely your own body will often cause such a reaction.

She knew he wouldn't tell about this discovery. He was so confused and she knew this shook his whole world view. She had to make sure that no one else would find it though.

Kara wiped the sleeve of her jacket over the name plate near the cockpit of the viper. STARBUCK If that's whose viper this was, who did that make her? She used the screwdriver she had used to pull the DRADIS out of her new viper to unscrew and pry off the old name plate. She also used it to carve out the tail numbers and all other identifying marks. This wasn't enough damage control. The Viper was out of place on this planet, the body and ship too recent, showing no signs of the 2,000 year old war that had taken place here.

She did what she had to do, that was what she was best at after all. The body, her body, was nearly weightless. The remaining flesh was long gone; it was just a flight suit full of bones. She could overly relate to that feeling.

Twilight was falling, it was getting darker. The single moon was rising on one horizon, what could be seen of the yellow sun setting on the opposite. Not much of either celestial body could be seen as even after 2,000 years the atmosphere here was frakked. Consequently it was getting colder; she hadn't planned to spend the night here, to be here this long.

Two birds, one stone. She collected pieces of wood and brush, dried long grasses and piled them in and on top of the viper remains. She picked up the pieces she could see of the destroyed ship and added them to the pile. The body of the ship should still have enough tillium in it to set this all ablaze.

Carefully she picked up and placed the body, she couldn't think of it as her body right now, and placed it on top of the pile. Not many people have a chance to build their own pyre. Her ancestors had been disposed in similar fashion, burn the body, spread the ashes, feed the land. Was that what this body was? An ancestor? Was this ground even worth feeding?

Before she lit the match, she said a silent prayer:

"Lords of Kobol, hear my prayer, guide this daughter to the Elysium Fields. May she join with those who came before and left before her. Keep her safe, whoever she is."

She lit the match and watched the flames begin to spread.