Author Note: Exams had been keeping me down, but I got this finished and have begin chapter five, as always I hope you like it and if there is anything you would like to tell me, enspecailly if there is anything you think I can improve on, please tell me in a review. As always, thank you for reading.
Chapter Four-
Leoben-
She was here. Kara was here, she wasn't on Galactica, or Pegasus, or anywhere else in the universe during the invasion. Though her name had been on the page there was the chance she was doing supply runs or something up in space. But now he knew, with his own eyes, she was here. He had heard her voice, and saw her for the briefest moment, she was really here, this was really happening. After all this waiting, finally he could see the end of the chase for her.
He just had a couple more things to put in place, make sure the Centurions would shoot at her, but miss. Leoben knew in her personality, and all she had done against them, she was the fleets' golden girl after all, she would not keep quiet. He was surprised there had been no attack coming from her yet. Just a few more coding adjustments and he would be done.
As he worked, he wondered what the other models would think. Centurions had guns built in them for a reason or so the Ones said. And yet, to scare, not kill. To take down an enemy slowly, or watch it destroy itself, Leoben would prefer watching the humans rip themselves apart, explosions became dull after you sat back and watched a nuclear holocaust. But no, like some action movie there had to be guns and they had to hit people, not just scare them and so he rigged the machines to not kill Kara Thrace.
Kara was different from the other humans; something drew him to her like a moth to flame. The rest of his line thought he was crazy and he had been threatened many times, mostly by Cavil, to be boxed. Put in cold storage, a fate more horrible than torture, you couldn't die; you couldn't think you could only be in a vast, cold, emptiness. As a mean joke one of them had put him in cold storage for an hour and it had been horrifying, he would rather die, at least, even if Kara was right and he didn't have a soul, it was better than being in that void.
Making the final adjustments to the metal beings' programs Caprica came up behind him, looking emotionally exhausted. She looked like a mess, rather than her usual put together self and the way she dictated everything around her be.
He quickly finished what he was doing and walked over to his sister, and did a very human thing. He hugged her, like a brother would. He didn't buy into the Ones and some of the other models philosophy that every model would behave the same way. Caprica was different, they could argue because she was designed differently Boomer was, but there was no excusing the other Sharon, they were all different, they shared the same traits, sometimes, and were biologically identical, but they were far from the same. He was a very religious man; while there was a copy of himself who was an atheist, as hard has some of his other models had tried to get him to convert. They weren't all the same, they were people, had souls, different identities, different destines.
When a choked sob escape his sister he murmured to her comforting words. He just held her as the Six, so put together, broke down, he held his sister as she cried. Leoben didn't ask, but he knew it must have had something to do with her Doctor. In his opinion, the Doctor didn't deserve her. Caprica was beautiful, as her brother he knew that, she was smart, she was fun to be around if you caught her in a good mood. Her favorite color was blue. She hated the taste of beef and refused to eat it with stubbornness. She, despite being the one that had given them access to the defense mainframe to kill billions, was a pacifist, hating violence.
Leoben wondered what this man had said to her that made her cry so hard, she rarely showed any kind of raw emotion, while not made of battle-resistant metal like the Centurion counter-parts, she was normally made of it in the metaphorical sense of the expression. And now she was shattered into tiny pieces, crying and upset, tears running down her face.
"He called me a machine," the blonde gasped out between sobs. "and even though I am one he doesn't have to say I'm cruel and heartless and that he hates me." Caprica Six was leaning heavily on him now and he moved through the base star to take her to her quarters, knowing there was not much he could do for this. He felt protective of her in a big brother sort of way.
Part of him wanted to wring that human's neck until he was nothing but a pile of bones. Another part of him knew it would be counter-productive in getting the humans to not rebel, at least not too much anyway, and it would hurt Caprica if he died. So he just stroked her hair and comforted her.
Some people thought the cylons were just emotionless, flat beings that had no feelings. How wrong they were, if they were programs, than they were real to them. One of their own had turned her back on her entire species for her love of a man. He loved Kara Leonora Thrace. Boomer still loved Chief despite her denying it and the fact he had moved on. Caprica loved Dr. Baltar, despite his many faults, self-centeredness, and the fact he would only pay attention to her because he thought Leoben's sister was pretty.
He knew he had things to do, they had decided that there were jobs each would do when they got to the surface and he had to get to work on setting up the power plant at once. But he could not just leave her here, all by herself to cry.
She waved her hand at the wall and her room opened and he realized that even though it was all very put together, she was far from the minimalist he was and she had more than enough clothes to give each human woman a dress and more, it was all very neat and color coded. He got her a glass of water and set the glass on her night side while the exhausted Six laid down.
He staid with his sister until she fell asleep, and knew that somewhere out there was the man who hurt her. He prayed to God, hoping her love life would get better, and for luck in dealing with Kara.
Leoben wasn't sure how long he sat there praying. He just knew when he was done his knees ached and he was going to get an earful from Cavil later today for shirking his work. Exiting the room, he went down the metal hallways at a carefully measured pace with a perfectly measured beat. He had always liked patterns and rhythms, walking was no different. Even on sidewalks back in the colonies, he wouldn't step on cracks.
Without warning an explosion rocked the grounded Basestar, causing structural damage and a fire to break out, tiny chain reaction explosions were everywhere and he began to run to it's source, jumping over flames at a inhuman speed and working to go around those he couldn't jump. All around him he saw dead cylons, humanoid models or Centurion made no difference. Others were shouting and yelling for what was going on, grabbing a gun or bring a centurion with them.
He knew inside him, this had been no accident, and as he grew closer to the gapping hole, and heard faints yells of elation over the noise of the fires and explosions, he was only confirmed right. Humans had done this.
Leoben was depressed; death was a horrible thing, even if you could download. For him it was always a mystery, the wonder if, maybe this time, you really wouldn't go back, or if as a cruel joke one of his brothers had boxed him again, was always there. He could only imagine what it was like for a human, shutting your eyes, never seeing your loved one again.
He had no time to ponder on it; he zigzagged through the flames in a way their God Apollo himself would envy. He saw the figures ahead running into the tree-line and followed them, every running step he took bringing them closer to him.
The cylon knew he couldn't get them all, at least not all at once. Other models, the fives and another two who decided to call himself Jared after being killed by Adama at Ragnar Anchorage. He would have to pick one and zero in on it, only one to chase instead of them all. Leoben wondered in some small part of his mind what Kara was doing and where she was and if she had anything to do with this. She had probably masterminded the entire thing; he ought to be angry about it but the only thing he could feel was admiration for her. He never could be angry with her.
Up ahead one of the figures hood's slipped and revealed shoulder length bright blonde hair. Even in the darkness of an almost complete night there was no mistaking who that belonged too. Leoben switched from a man in front of him to her, now tearing through the trees after the figure. There was only one woman he knew of among all these survivors with hair like that. He had no intentions of letting her go. Not when she was so close.
Kara-
There was nothing quite like the satisfying explosion that resulted from the explosives they had detonated around the basestar. It would make anyone's day better, shooting at things, making things explode, making the enemy weaker. It would come back she knew that, and yet, she let loose a yell of ecstasy along with the rest of the fledging resistance. Screw professionalism, they were all on their own with not much of a chance of help, as much as she wanted to believe otherwise.
As she and her people ran off into the distance she vaguely realized they were being followed. She was relieved they were only skin-jobs, humanoid models, nowhere near as tough as centurions. Only a few too, they must have really been caught off guard.
Her mind noted four of them, two Leobens and Dorals. Against 20 able bodied soldiers and some snipers who had set themselves up along the tree line along with rigging some other nasty surprises for the incoming company. Motherfrackers didn't stand a chance.
She didn't like how fast they were coming up however, but they didn't seem to have any heavy weaponry. Nothing like automatics or anything just a couple hand-guns which they were too far away too use. But not for long, as the distance between them and weapons range was dwindling as her people began to show signs of exhaustion while the cylons did not stop. As a five stumbled across a home-rigged landmine, she smiled as the other ran back to see what was going on, it did not seem the Doral models were particularly smart. That left two models now, and they were her least favorite.
The two remaining had begun to draw in on them closer and closer before a shot was fired. Glancing backwards the Doral who had fled fell in the dirt, kicking and screaming as the bullet found him. Two down, two to go.
She didn't like this hand to hand stuff, it reminded her too much of her past, she preferred sitting in the cockpit of her bird and shooting the raiders any day of the week. She wished she had chosen to stay on the ships, then she wouldn't be done here and if it got all fracked up it wasn't her fault. Because that was what Kara Thrace was best at, fracking it all up. She had known that from a very young age even before her Dad had left her all alone with her mom.
The cold bitter wind tore at them, gusting relentless and her hood fell back, revealing her bright blond hair. She silently cursed it, while she did like her hair now was not the time in the middle of running for your life in a dark night and trying to get away from toasters that would shot you were you stood.
Kara wished she had the fore-sight to wear a ski hood, as any chance of dying her hair was far gone as when it was hard to get food day to day what made anyone think they could just go another shade anytime they wanted? They were far from home, which wasn't home just the remains of a nuclear apocalypsed world, little luxuries had never been on a battlestar anyways, not that she would have gone near them if they had.
Snatching up the hood as she ran even harder into the tree line she heard someone following her and went even faster. It was life or death, something that had been drilled into her from day one. Her or the toaster following her, there was no repeats no do-overs for her anyway, damn cylon got as many do-overs as he wanted. No nothing for her, and she was a complete idiot if she was getting caught the first week of the occupation. They hadn't even been there a full 24 hours and if she got caught now it was more than sad, it was downright depressing.
And besides who wanted to be a POW anyway? Not her, it was fighting all the way, she would not get caught by these things. Not after everything. They would not put her back in a farm, she would die first. Not that, anything but that, she was scared of being who Socrata had been, but having a hybrid child? No, she wanted a family with Sam, nice normal family, normal, or as normal as she would ever get.
Oh who had she been kidding? She demanded of herself as she ran on in the woods? Did you really just think it would all go away, and you could just be let be and start a family with him and that it would be a nice bright shiny future Lee always talked about? You stupid girl for believing in that, you were never very bright but now? Did you really think it would be alright Kara, for one second did you? Her mother's voice echoed in her mind causing her to nearly stumble before she pushed on, no time for that now, there would be time for that when she was dead or safe. Not now.
Flying over leaves and branches her lithe figure made her way to a tree that was climbable and she had made note of the previous day to climb if ever needed while searching out for food. Well now was a good of time as any right? She was just running for her life here, not trying to disturb the poor sleeping animals.
She came to the trunk running full speed and used her hands to pull herself off the ground and scuttle up the branches, trying to get as far off the ground and into the branches as possible as fast as possible. She wished again she had a gun but they had decided not to as Centurions would notice them and being armed would arise suspicion. No, it had been better to just let the snipers do their jobs. Pity the choice had been the one that was probably going to get her killed. She reached down in her boot and slowly pulled out a knife, keeping the one in the sole of her boot hidden in case she needed it later. She held the glinting thing in her mouth for easy reach should she need to be ready to attack.
Going branch after branch until she was a good ten feet up, taller than a centurion she looked down, the only disadvantage to her well covered hiding spot was she couldn't see much. But maybe it was a small price to pay for being safe, for not being killed.
Her heart pounded so hard she was sure the cylon chasing her could have tracked her through it. She would not be surprised if they were able to do that, you could program a machine to do anything right, why not track a person through a beating heart? It made perfect sense to her; she even knew if she were a cylon, and Thank the Gods she wasn't because she didn't think she could stand it, she would have done it.
She focused on being as quiet and as still as possible as her ears picked up the sounds of someone going through the foliage below, searching. Far too slow to be a resistance member running; too controlled she noted, it had to be a cylon. No apparent fear of death was how she would have classed them if still an instructor, only cylons can't die.
Kara held in a gasp as she recognized the head below her. It was Leoben or a copy of him, of that she had no doubt. She knew that head of hair anywhere, wouldn't you after spending eight hours of it spewing back unwanted memories and crap about how special you were? Kara Thrace and her special destiny; yeah right he sounded like her mother. Kara Thrace was a frack-up, proof of that was that she was sitting in a tree with her enemy not more than 10 yards below her hiding spot.
And he didn't seem too interested in leaving any time soon. Instead of going off to look for anyone else or the person he'd been chasing, presumably her, he sat and lounged against the tree, not looking up, just leaning against it like he was waiting for something. Fracker.
Kara had decided she was going to have to wait him out. She would not lose to these toasters, even if it meant dying of exhaustion. She'd die before she gave up one colonial code, die before she got put back into a farm of some kind where she would be used to help create more cylons the biological way. The thought sent chills down the soldier's spine.
She peered down, the green leaves making a great hiding spot for her, but also leaving her pretty blind she could just see what was directly below and 2 o'clock. And leaves rustling, even though there was a gentle breeze she would be given up in seconds, and they would know she was there. Spot compromised equaled one dead soldier.
I wonder how Sam is doing. She thought to herself before cursing herself and her ability to frack up. Because when things went wrong they went wrong so well. She was, face it. Sitting in a tree, with a cylon not more than ten feet from her who would probably hold a grudge against her and had no desire to leave any time soon.
She hoped everyone else on the team had taken her seriously when she said if someone got taken you don't go looking for them. Soon as there is first light, sneak back into camp, no matter who is there and who is not. The last thing she needed to have on her mind was someone getting hurt because they'd tried to rescue the almighty Starbuck.
Because Starbuck would rescue herself thank you very much. She just needed a plan, a way to get out of this mess and fast. Before the cylon got the urge to lean his head back and stare at the leaves.
Leoben-
Leoben was not, resting his head against the tree. He was not tired at all. As if that running had worn him out, maybe a human but he was made of stronger stuff. Literally. Not what Leoben did was accessing the data stream, and sending for a Simon. And tranquilizers you could safely eject a human with without lasting effects.
It was very difficult to describe what accessing the data stream felt like. It was like using your mind to surf the thousands of pieces of information. He transmitted to Simon to bring a heavy raider, to appear they were just sending out a search party, and bring a dart gun. Simon could not shoot, but Leoben's aim wasn't too bad. The Eight who called herself Boomer had taught him how after he had asked her one day, and much to his surprise he didn't turn out to be a bad shot.
Of course the other two who was running around, Jared, choose that moment to enter the conversation. His voice in the stream screamed out who he was and drowned out everyone else's. Most cylons took care to make sure that they did not put a strain on the stream by being annoying. Jared was not most cylons.
Jared was a wild card. He had been killed at Ragnar anchorage by the military's top officer and upon download the first thing he did was draw back the scar on his face above his eye. It was unmistakable who he was, it was very obvious. He did it after every time he downloaded. He was rude, a rebellious type of cylon, disagreeing for the heck of it. He had no respect for anyone and had taken to telling Leoben in graphic detail if he ever got his hands on the viper pilot what exactly he would do to Starbuck. The thought made him scared, it made her treatment of him same extremely tame in comparison.
'You know, an easier way to get her, would be to just smack her upside the head.' His annoying voice that was uncanny like Leoben's own. They were biologically identical, but there was something in his voice, something that made him stand out. It was colder, more heartless. Little things like that was how you would tell the copies apart.
'That would be counter productive.' He replied back, the Simon having disconnected to go get the raider ready. He had been over this to other cylons countless times, using it as a behavior project. But it would happen; she would fall in love with him, his vision was proof of that. And Jared would not screw it up for him by being interfering.
Jared disconnected and Leoben knew he would not hear the end of it. Jared was like a mean older brother, even though Leoben was the representative of his model, Jared was everything you could think of. The older jerk at school who wore the sunglasses with the leather jacket and pushed younger kids in trashcans. The person you told yourself whose opinions did not matter, and yet you found yourself wanting their approval. Which you never would get.
He waited, and silently the human above him remained tense, waiting for her opportunity to escape. Not this time he thought to himself, not when I've finally found you. The heavy raiders hum entered his hearing and seconds later entered the humans as well. The poor thing was probably praying to her Gods' to spare her life, or saying final good byes and making final confessions. He hated Kara was so afraid of him, he loved her, she had no reason to fear him. He wanted to be with her forever and forever, he'd never hurt her or let anyone hurt her. That was a promise, he'd die a true death for her.