I tried a different Point of view this time so, let me know what you think about it, I am still not so sure about it but wanted to try something different. Oh and just a heads up, this chapter is pretty long and I tried to cut it into half but it just didn't feel right stopping off where it would have ended had I cut it into two separate chapters. So it is a long chapter, Anyways, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 8-
Kara-
Kara just stared at the body, lifeless on the kitchen floor. Slowly she bent down and put her finger to his neck for a pulse. Dead. Not in the true sense of the word being he was never coming back, because she didn't doubt for a minute he would come back, but this body was dead. And she had bought herself a few hours.
A minute ago he'd been alive, a minute ago he was sitting at that table talking to her drinking a glass of water. Was it really only a minute ago? How many minutes was it now? Two? Three? Four? Was it Fifteen? How long had she been here in the kitchen, above the body of this man, this thing, she corrected herself. How long had it been since she first killed with her hands alone?
The imagery of the incident is painfully clear. Her senses had gone into overdrive as she had done it, making it all perfectly easy to account. First she had snuck up out of her chair, bare feet allowing her to move relatively easy on the floor. If he heard her he had given no sign, just gone to a cabinet next to sink pipes to pull out a towel to get rid of some of the water she had unceremoniously dumped on him.
Than she'd attacked. He called out her name but by then it was too late, she was already committed to it, make a choice and don't look back was what Tigh had said. Tigh was right, she made a choice, and she couldn't look back and she couldn't stop. She had reached with her right hand and forced his head into the cabinets, causing blood to spout instantly from the head wound. Head wounds always bleed a whole bunch. They always had.
She remembered when her mother had done the same thing, but it was much different than what was happening right now. Memories of a small little girl with her head banged in the same spot against that one cabinet over and over for being bad floated to the surface before they were shoved back away. She would have been forced to pause and reflect on them but she couldn't stop now, she was in pure soldier mode, pure Starbuck. Nothing could stand in her way right now. Her left hand joined her right one at his neck on impulse and they hung on.
He twisted in her grip and it was hard to hang on to him, whether it was because of revulsion of what she was doing was sinking in or because he was twisting and fighting to free her grip, he still fought and a small part wanted to just let him go. Only pure iron will was getting her through the end to finish what she had started, commit to it. Finally he resigned himself to the fate, he looked at her sadly only to shut his eyes moments later, and than his body went still.
Kara, not the soldier and certainly not the legendary Starbuck, dropped the body to the floor, and her feet carried her to the bathroom, operating on auto-pilot, all thoughts of exploring without being watched forgotten. The door swung shut as hands that were her's and hands that weren't her's pushed it closed, pushed up the toilet lid and released whatever small amount of food was in her stomach back up in the form of vomit.
When her poor stomach was done she took a piece of toilet paper, some small part of her mind wondering about that and how it had been acquired, and wiped her mouth off. Inside her mouth she still tasted it, and so she spit, anything she could, anything to get the taste out. Moving back to the sink and rinsing her mouth out with water, not even noticing the two toothbrushes or the two tubes of tooth paste, her hands join under the stream of water, anything to get him off her hands.
She felt nausea roll up again and Kara went back to the toilet, with nothing in her stomach but still the repulsion of what she had done began to dry-heave, vomiting up nothing, as her stomach had nothing. After a minute of clutching the toilet lid, Kara didn't feel the strength to stand, and slowly she moves back from the toilet, and sinks to the floor her back on the opposite wall. Her knees come up and she wraps her arms around her shins, her head of blonde hair safely tucked into her secure little ball.
Kara had often hid like this when her mother was angry at her, drunk, or both. Ran off in the bathroom, curled up, she knew her mother could break open the door locked or not, Socrata had, more than once if she thought it worth the effort, to extract revenge on the small girl for whatever crime it was today. Sometimes she did, sometimes she just gave up on the door and was waiting when Kara left the confines of a linoleum floor.
The lock had always been replaced again and again, Socrata insisted on it, often making Kara do the work and the younger Thrace ended up being given many lashes for not working fast enough for her mother's liking or being unable to install it properly as Socrata had taken away the instructions.
Her voice floated around the present day Kara's head. "You're special Kara. You've got a destiny, and it's my job to make sure you aren't some stupid whimp and can face it. Not like all the stories in the scriptures of those pathetic heroes who weren't good enough, you've got to be the best." The words had been said again and again, in many different ways, in rare moments of triumph for the young Kara or in some of the darkest days.
Kara had grown to hate that word very early on, destiny, she never wanted to hear it again. She still read the Scriptures, despite the popular belief she couldn't be religious and wouldn't know one God from the next even if it was emblazed on her helmet right in front of her, and she still read the stories of the heroes, the good and bad ones, those who failed and succeeded in their missions for the Gods.
As a little girl, Kara had begin to memorize the books of scripture, the only thing she set her mind to really, while her school grades stayed good, nothing spectacular Bs mostly, with sometimes a C or an even rarer low A, her ability to recite the scriptures flourished. She remembered going to the Temple on a road nearby in her Picon town, and the Priestess, someone she had often considered her only friend growing up, helped her learn the verses and her knowledge of them grow.
It gave her something to live for, the knowledge of each of the words becoming safely tucked in her heart, mind and soul. To this day she can still recite most of them, time having worn down bits and pieces here and there, but still it was remarkable. It was her ability, albeit a well hidden one, everyone has a skill.
Ever since she started when she was nine years old, Kara had slowly gone through book after book after book, slowly, painstakingly memorizing the books. They gave her something; she started to think her days with the Priestess, the second, fourth, sixth and seventh days of the week were what all she had to look forward to.
Sitting on the floor of Leoben's bathroom, Kara gently rocked back and forth, and began to recite, the familiar words comforting her slightly, in the fact she still had them.
Caprica-
The blonde had been shaken after the explosion of a few days ago, still was as a matter of fact. For a while she stayed well inside the orbiting basestars, only now choosing to think about going down to the surface. Going down to him.
She hadn't been down to the surface since the treaty, or whatever you wanted to call it, had been made with the President. President Gais Baltar. It seemed so odd to think he had become the President and yet, she had come to expect surprises in things that regarded Gais.
Learning he had been alive from the model who called herself Boomer had been a shock in and of itself. Out of all the humans that had escaped, who would have thought he would be one of them, and becoming the Vice President and now the President either. She had no idea that what she had done; shielding him from the explosion had actually worked and saved his life. She had just used it as a last ditch attempt to keep the man she had fallen in love with, shouldn't have fallen in love with, alive.
As she waited for her Heavy raider to finish refueling she went to the data stream and stuck in her hand. Nothing new, nothing as important as exploding basestars anyways. An eight had mysteriously vanished yesterday had not shown up in the downloading stream. She had not reported to her job, had not been in her quarters and searches of all areas in the camp of known high profile, probable insurgent figures, had led to nothing.
No one had sign hide nor hair or her, she had simply vanished. It was worrying. The possibility she was being kept a prisoner somewhere, scared Caprica. Would she be a new Gina, would the humans slowly capture them all, not kill them but keep them in their current body, forced to exist in pain and suffering and not be freed or given mercy.
Where would she be kept? Any certain place? Tents would be stupid, and some had been looked through already, there had to be some other place, but no one was leaving camp according to the Centurion scouts and they were accurate in what they did 98% percent of the time. There had been the incident of the rogue eight and her pet human, Helo was his name or something. But how many things could really get snuck past a Centurion? Were the Centurions getting dumber, more outdated, was it time to revise their programming?
Or were the humans simply getting smarter? Was there an inside agent on the cylons' own side? So many questions, but none of them helped the Eight who had gone missing, she called herself Meghan, none of her reasoning or musings helped Meghan any. Caprica Six swirled the tips of her fingers in the liquid as she thought and batted ideas around.
Wait, something new in the data, it was a download. Leoben, killed so soon by the human called Starbuck no doubt. Caprica sighed, her brother had not downloaded in a good long time, she put her trip on hold and instructed the Raider to go without her she'd take another, and headed to the downloading chambers.
Her silver heels clacked against the floor of the basestar, form fitting red dress clung to her curves. She passed Centurions with a slight nod of her head, wondering if they even noticed she did it or if they didn't. She had never asked them about it. Her brother had always thought if they did not treat them with the respect they were due they might one day rebel against their humanoid counterparts. Ones told him to shut up and the Threes rode him mercilessly with jokes about it, but some of the Sixes thought he was right. They just didn't say anything.
Nodding to another of her model, who had decided her name was to be Ashley after much deliberation, they passed in the corridor, two pairs of heels clacking on the ground. Ashley had quickly claimed the spot of interrogator; privately Caprica thought she was just bitter a human had killed her in the Delphi museum. But Caprica said nothing. It was not her place, and if her line had a tendency to hold grudges and be more than a little bitchy well than.
Finally arriving at the door that held Leoben's tank she walks into the room and settles by the tub to wait. She reached to a drawer built within the device and pulls out towels and a bathrobe, along the wall various sets of clothes were hung up so he could pick out what to return in. Caprica was distracted for a moment, her mind going off on an entirely new wardrobe for him, what he insisted on wearing was so dull, and dreary and did not show him off to his best advantages. But he'd never let her do it, he had said no multiple times and she had eventually stopped asking. But what the color brown would do for him.
While she waited for the process to near completion she told a Centurion to go to the apartment, go through the iron door, shut it, enter the apartment and remove the body only. Nothing else and they were to leave the same way. Body only, nothing else was to be harmed or happen and the iron bar door and the regular door was to be firmly locked.
She stared at the still face of the man she called her brother and wondered if he was a fool for thinking Kara Thrace would ever love him. She wondered if she was any less of a fool when she had known going in that Gais only wanted her for sex and yet fallen in love with him anyways.
Seeing him, surrounded by important looking people and a woman who was surely a prostitute was hard. The blunt refusal he had to acknowledge her was harder and when he did it was to tell her she was a machine. Nothing she felt was real, he didn't love her and had never felt anything for her. The man had broken her heart into ity bity metaphorical pieces.
Caprica was brought from her brooding when the body in the tube slowly began to turn into Leoben, gasping, his eyes not seeing yet, but than regaining focus. He thrashed around and cried out for people. He cried out for her, his sister. He cried out for God, and he cried out for Kara.
Caprica had never understood why of all humans left in humanity he had picked the ace Viper pilot but she supposed that was love. You didn't choose to fall in love; you accepted it or tried to run away.
"Shh shh, it's okay." She said, her hand reaching out to caress his face, anything to calm him down. She had been killed by a Caprican resistance fighter once, she had been so disoriented, at least when she had been in the nuclear blast she had known she would die, with the bullet from the fight, in her mind it was still bullets raining around and she felt the battle around her until she became fully aware she had downloaded.
The body in the tank continued to thrash around and hands automatically reached up for his throat, holding his neck and he greedily sucked in breaths of air as if it would suddenly disappear. Glimmers of anger stirred through the blonde cylon woman. His woman, his obsession, had held his throat till he couldn't breathe.
Kara Thrace had killed her brother physically, Gais had killed her heart. Were the two really any different situations? Truth be told she worried about him sometimes, even though he'd been created before her he still felt like a little brother to her. Despite his protective nature and comforting her when Gais had made it clear the only way to be close to him was a path through his sheets, he really could be her younger brother. He behaved so strangely sometimes, going off on one of his sermons about God, the Universe, and the role you play. Twos were by intended nature supposed to be philosophers and great thinkers, but even Leoben could take it to an extreme. The fact he was representative of his line did not help.
His project with Starbuck was such an example, she'd never actually met the woman but she didn't need to. She had looked at Leoben's memories when he wasn't paying attention and her brother's growing obsession with her had filled the cylon woman with unease. Despite his claims she would one day grow to love him, and many of her brother's visions had come true, Caprica thought even that was a stretch.
This may turn out to be the start of a very sad story. She pondered while she gently reassured the body in the tank that was becoming her brother it was okay, or the greatest love story that has ever been told.
Caprica was a secret romantic, one of those girls who liked the idea of flowers, the dashing hero who swept the girl off her feet, a wedding ring and stories filled with happily ever afters with the princess and the knight riding off on a beautiful white horse. She only wanted the best for her brother, and she was not sure he would get it. Her brother had strokes of brilliance in him, and yet he was sometimes so, naive, there was really no other word, she wanted to shake him.
If it was true love like Leoben insisted than she could only hope it would turn out for the best. She had felt a broken heart and never wanted Leoben to feel it; she wanted to protect him from it. And yet, would she go as far as to take Kara away from him, she saw the way his eyes lit up when he talked about her, the protectiveness, the whole new tone he got when speaking of her.
One thing was for sure, she mused, Leoben was hopelessly in love with the human Kara Thrace.
After many more minutes of telling the body in the tub it was going to be alright Leoben woke up and she stroked his hair away from his face, softly speaking to him telling him it was okay just like a mother would. She'd thought her and Gais would have a baby once, and she than killed the thought. Why did her thoughts always have to end up on that man?
"Shhh, it's okay now, you're here with me Caprica, shhh, you're fine." she soothed and silently handed him a towel. Her brother looked worried and Caprica wondered what had really happened in that apartment. She knew his Kara had chocked him, but what else, she was curious after all.
Not even missing a beat he looked at her, blue eyes alight with worry "Jared, he is on the other Basestar working on Raiders right?" His tone is quick and urgent and Caprica is glad she can answer yes. She remembered what Jared had said that day, and thought she thought he was only saying it as a scare tactic Leoben had taken it very seriously.
Caprica turned as her brother stepped out and pulled his robe around his body, sitting down against the edge of the tank, the effects of downloading clearly having their effect on him. He looked a little sad too, worn out, Leoben sighed and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the tub.
She waits for him to speak, for once not wanting to be the first to speak about whatever else is on his mind now that Jared is accounted for. He opens his eyes a moment as if for the first time in as many minutes he realizes she is really there with him. "Thank you." he whispers softly, and she just nods.
The Six model wonders if he is going to talk about what happened, or even if he would want to. It must have been hard, seeing someone you loved and knowing they don't feel the same. She knew all about that. Leoben though, always for unpredictability, calmly states "I had a vision the other day."
When he first said it she listened to him, well before the attacks, other models had discussed boxing him. But than when he made a predication, and it turned out to be accurate, many of their views changed. He got a great deal right and was able to avoid catastrophes for the most part. It was uncanny, and yet, she was curious as to what possible outcome he had been shown by God now.
Taking her silence as a cue to continue he started talking again. "I saw a little girl Caprica, and she looked just like Kara. Her eyes were a blue-green though, it's a sign I've been waiting for" he sounded so hopeful and Caprica's blue eyes just look at him, not sure what to say to that.
Caprica personally sometimes questioned his sanity. That child could be Anders's, or that Adama fellow's. Or it could be Leoben's. Or for all she knew it could be some random guy off the streets, Leoben had no idea if it was his or not, lot's of people had blue eyes, but he looked so hopeful.
"Leoben, just because you saw it doesn't mean it is going to happen." She said, trying to be the voice of reason. If indeed the child would ever exist at all. She wanted it to, she knew it would make her brother happy and she did want him to be happy. She just wasn't sure if he could handle the disappointment if it turned out to not be his child at all "And you might not be the father either."
"I know," He broke in cutting her off. "But I have a good feeling about this. Okay?" And Caprica relented. Leoben had been right about a good many things, maybe he was right about this. Even though she had her doubts she was not going to press the issue, maybe it was a piece of hope he needed.
"I hope so." She answered quietly, and left the room for him to change and return back to his apartment, it becoming twilight in the city below. She didn't know why love worked the way it did, she didn't know whether Leoben's mythical child would ever come into existence or not. But she did know her apartment was ready and waiting for her, and she knew that night before she went to sleep she would pray to God for him.
Kara-
After everything and sitting on the floor for a few hours, she was tired, hungrier than before, and cold. Slipping out of the bathroom she looks back into the apartment with it's muted cool and calm colors, silent and empty. Someone had come in while she had been reciting to herself and taken away the body and cleaned up the blood.
There was still some water on the table from when she had thrown water at him and the food was still there along with his mostly empty glass. Her bright green eyes looked at the food, her stomach pleading with her mind to go over there and eat it, she decided it wouldn't make a difference if it was poisoned or not.
Kara didn't even bother to sit down; she took some of the cheddar and the cracker and forced herself to eat it slowly as to not bother her poor stomach which had not eaten in apparently three or so days. It seemed right; this building had just been a skeleton when she had seen it last so it had to more than a day or two.
After finishing her small meal she was still hungry, but didn't dare try any of the cabinets, not when she was so tired anyways. No, who knew what kind of funhouse he had created, it could have jars of blood and dog tails in jars for all she knew.
Kara had decided she wasn't going back to the bedroom to sleep, her recently drugged body having already been drowsy, tired again. It was his bed, and the thought of sleeping in his, it's, bed with him sent shudders down her spine. What did he want from her?
Did he want a baby? A hybrid like Hera? Kara silently prayed to the Gods that it wouldn't happen. He already said he didn't want revenge, was she some kind of experiment, some kind of toy, or Gods forbid some kind of slave?
Kara paced a bit, trying to think up what he could want from her. None of them sounded very appealing and the more she paced the more outlandish they become. She ran her fingers through her long hair, trying to decide what in the name of Apollo himself that Leoben, that the cylon, could want from her.
Her pacing led her to the window by the table and she slowly lifted the curtains. Stars had begun to twinkle throughout the night sky and the planet's moons shone down onto the surface. It seemed so tranquil; no one would ever know nor guess something horrible was going to be probably going down on the surface against the humans tomorrow.
Kara slowly raised a hand and her fingers brushed the cool glass, she noted it was bulletproof and shatterproof and she seemed to be on the third floor of whatever building this was. She had a lovely view of some more buildings, more apartments she presumed, those all one stories, or maybe it was a prison. Knowing the cylons they would probably call it the same thing. There was a courtyard in the middle with some kind of ridiculous flower patch. Just beyond was the edge of another building of some kind, she had no real idea what it was, having been sound asleep during its construction.
In the distance she heard an iron door clang open and than the sound of an iron door clanging shut. Just as she thought, she was really in a prison, only it included a cylon there 24/7, nice sheets and nailed-to-the-floor-tables. She never seemed to be able to have anything the traditional way now could she? She would almost prefer a jail cell, it would make her feel better ironically, she felt as though she were betraying the people in the camp, her people, by being here in this nice comfy apartment. Granted, she couldn't leave; she had a cylon there and would probably get in trouble for killing him but at least in a cell she would know what was going on.
She heard keys jingling out in the hall and than the lock turn. Her small frame tensed as the door opened and than shut behind him, locking the door and the dead bolt. Why the dead bolt too, she silently wondered, why not just the regular lock? She could unlock it easily as it unlocked and locked from the inside. Was he trying to keep people out?
As though the stupid mother-fracking cylon could read her mind, Leoben paused and than spoke, "I might just be paranoid, but I don't want to take the chance of anyone getting inside the apartment. Only I can unlock it from the outside, but at night, I still want it locked"
Kara didn't answer him; she just kept on staring out the window. She could see the Pyramid court in the distance, empty now, and her heart ached for Sam. She had promised she'd be back to see if he was feeling better when she came back from the basestar raid, she must be the worst wife ever. Get kidnapped when your husband is sick.
She wondered if he was okay, she wondered what he would think of her little cell. She wondered if he was getting better and if he had bullied whoever would have pitched in and helped take care of him into letting him play pyramid. If he needed meds from Cottle, or if he had started to be able to walk around again.
Leoben took her out of her silent brooding. "Are you hungry?" Before she could shake her head no even though she was, her stomach growled, the small amount of food she had fed it earlier nowhere near enough to satisfy its hunger. She silently cursed her body for being so weak and admitting to a weakness. He could withhold food from her or something.
He didn't press her anymore, he just walked into the kitchen and took down some plates. He opened the stainless steel refrigerator, the same metal color as everything else and not surprisingly shined until it gleamed, and some contents along with it. She just stood at the window, trying to watch him and appear to not be watching at the same time.
If the cylon noticed he didn't comment, he didn't say anything seeming to know she didn't want to talk and unwilling to press her. Why? The last time she had seen him onboard the Geminion Traveler he had taken an almost savage delight in pressing her buttons. And he knew exactly which buttons to push, like her and Lee back in the good old days. When they still had good days.
The memory is pushed down as he set the food on the side of the table that has been designated her side of the table. It's a sandwich, nothing fancy, just a ham, cheese, good stuff like lettuce, tomatoes, other vegetables she hadn't seen in over a year. Not since she got shore leave before the attacks and went back to Delphi had she seen this stuff.
Kara sat down in the chair, and again wondered what he wants. But the thought of food is overtaking, and she berates herself for being so pitifully weak. She's gone longer than this without food, she could do it again. But, her mind counters; she had been drugged for over two, almost three days, and who knew when she would get food again?
Across the table, less than five feet away and it's enough to make her fidget; the Toaster has not looked at his meal. Instead he has bowed his hand and his hands are clasped. "Not sleeping, praying," the memory reminds her, and she silently prays to the Gods in thanks for the food and for hope of escape. When he finishes he looks at her sadly "I'm sorry it's not a better meal, I wanted to make something fancier but this will have to do being it's late, I'll make it up to you tomorrow." And than it went quiet.
They took their meal in silence. Neither of them speaking t one another, Kara not wanting to voice her fears and the cylon content with the fact she'd probably talk to him eventually. She finishes her meal after him, and he picks up her plate and sets them in the sink for washing tomorrow. Apparently he only washes and puts away knives on the spot and any other kind of dangerous object, good to know.
The clock on the wall shows it to be 22:00 now, though it is an analog clock and it takes a second for her to convert to her preferred military time. While he crosses the room and goes into the room under the stairs, what used to be just a room for her had been converted into an office sort of space for him with the walls lined with books. Kara isn't thinking about books, instead she moves quickly intent on taking the time while he is distracted to enter the bedroom, not as fast as she could, but fast enough into the bedroom and picks her socks up off the floor. She doesn't trust him at all enough to change into something else to sleep in and this way her bare feet won't be cold. Last second she grabs her boots, not for warmth but for the knife inside. She'll be ready if he tries anything.
He seems resigned to the fact she won't sleep with him, and as she pulls her socks on over her cold feet, he looks like he is trying to find the right words to say from his spot outside the bedroom door. His voice starts out small and hesitant, "Do you want a blanket, or a pillow, or"
"No." She sharply cuts him off and he seems a bit sadder than and maybe she feels the tiniest bit bad. But he is a cylon, he doesn't have feelings, he has wires and programs. He nods a small nod and than turns around and goes to his bedroom, alone. After a few minutes the lights click out and Kara releases a breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
Taking the small break, she opened up her right boot's sole and to her relief the small knife is there. Finally after everything that she learned today, there's some good news. Kara settled down on the couch with it, and curls up into a small ball, her back against the couch's back and her eyes locked on the bedroom door. She doesn't trust him anymore than she believes that deep deep down the cylons are actually nice and caring people.
Try as she might, she couldn't stay awake. Eyelids kept fluttering over tired green eyes, her body was still feeling the effects of whatever had been in her system, and the promise of black oblivion was a pretty incentive promise. The knife still in her pocket, her hand resting on the handle, she eventually succumbed to the blackness.