Hi everyone, I realize this chapter is shorter than most, if only because I think the scene and chapter needs to stop there. It was kind of hard for me to write this, so if you have any critque on anything I can do better, please don't hesitate to tell me. And if you have any comments I'd love to hear those too. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy.

Sam-

Sam: Who are you?

Note: Someone who hates the cylon who took Kara

Sam: Which cylon took her?

Note: Not quite ready to give that up yet

Sam: Why not?

Note: Because it's not the time.

Sam: When is it?

Note: Meet me at the river dam two hours before work starts. Day before next break day.

He and Colonel Tigh stand in the tent, staring at the note that specifies tomorrow's meeting. Sam wants to go, desperate to find something that can help Kara. The older man isn't so sure, Sam can see it in the lines of his face and posture.

"I don't know Sam." Sam groans in frustration. This is the best lead for her he has ever gotten, he can't just throw it away. He knows somewhere he needs to do this rationally and he needs military expertise, but to be honest he knows even if he gets the red light he is going to do it anyway. Kara needs him, he needs her, and he can't just condemn her there.

Tigh sighs and looks him over, dark eyes glittering with some unknown, unseen thoughts. He is weighing on a choice and Sam needs the choice to be he's allowed to go. Not that he has to sneak out.

"I think it's someone messing with you." He says finally, and Sam's heart sinks.

"You'd be jumping to go if it was Ellen instead of Kara." A part of him knows that it's not the man's fault, it is probably a trap but he can't help it. He has nothing but respect for the Colonel, but Ellen is a whole other kettle of fish.

He and Kara had gotten dragged into some dinner with the Admiral, the Pegasus Commander as his mind refers to Lee, and the Tighs. As if it wasn't awkward enough with Kara and Lee trading barbs doing something only the two of them understood. Even more so as Kara left to go use the bathroom and Sam found Lee's eyes following his wife's figure. Sam, in a fit of petty revenge, could have called him on it, and was about to, when Ellen's foot was suddenly in his lap.

Quickly saying he needed the restroom too, he made his escape from Lee's not so subtle glares, Dee's innocence to the entire affair, Ellen giggling with childish glee, the Admiral and the former president impassive and the Colonel drunk.

His comment earns him a hooded glare and an unmeasureable amount of silence. "Fine." The Colonel says to him grudgingly. "But only if I go with you, got it? Second there is trouble you bolt, fast as your legs can carry you. You forget about this old man and get moving. You can lead the damn resistance." As much of as threat as it is a promise, Sam is feeling better than he has in days. Saying a quick thanks he dashes out the door, having to go again, fix and work on the stupid dam.

I'm coming Kara.

Kara-

She'd finally come up with a plan to escape this hellhole. It was nothing short of brilliant if she thought so herself, and she certainly thought so. It was unorthodox too. So many times these past three weeks she had paced back and forth, hands running over the pastel blue walls, pounding at windows and doors until her hands bleed. She couldn't think in this mind-numbing place, it was so bland and dull, on Galactica people inspired her, here it was just her, a drabby color scheme, an open window facing a garden that desperately needed more than grass and weeds to be called such, and a cylon. Who didn't really count anyways.

She had decided she was not going to refer to him by name about a week ago, she'd taken to calling him toaster instead. Along with a slew of other things. He accepted it, telling her it wasn't his name, his name was Leoben, to which she replied he was a toaster anyway. He got silent after that.

She had taken her cargo pants and put in a few things, just a photo of her and Zak in some location her mind couldn't remember, but they looked happy. His bright blue eyes had been shining and her own were looking at him, happy and alive. That person in the picture can't be me now, she doesn't exist anymore. She thought sadly. The war had turned them all into someone, maybe even something, else, and while she and Sam had been happy, there were still the marks of grief and pain all around them, they would never have the same happiness as she and Zak had. Maybe it was because her and Zak's love had been the first, the most innocent, and in a world that wasn't fighting each day for humanity's survival.

Other than that, she had Admiral Cain and Kendra Shaw's handy dandy pocket knife that had already come to her aide once before. After that night she had tried to kill him, but not with an obsession. She had, to put it in tech humor, bigger circuits to fry. All it was for was for ideas, he didn't keep his keys with him, they didn't even use keys, there was no number pad, if she was going to get out of her cell, Leoben was going to have to let her out.

She stood in the middle of the staircase right at the bottom, waiting for the thing to get back. They had come to an impasse, he still jabbered on about streams and other nonsense while she tuned him out and didn't pay attention to any of it. He normally got back by now, having memorized the cylon's routine. The knife was in her pocket, the cylon no doubt having searched her belongings but unable to find it in her boot's sole, ready and waiting for her plan. It was risky and dangerous as heck, but it was better than being in this cage.

The door opens and he enters the apartment, a little surprised at seeing her at the bottom of the stairs. Once she had tried rushing past him but the gate had already shut, so she normally hid in the bathroom or extra office area/library until dinner so she wouldn't have to talk to him.

"Good Evening Kara." He says in a pleasant tone of voice, moving cautiously, as though it's another plot to kill him. Not quite. Her mind remarks to herself sarcastically.

She takes the knife out of her pocket and puts it on her throat, pushing hard enough a bead of crimson blood stains her pale skin, and acts like nothing is wrong. She watches the color drain from the male cylon's face and almost laughs about how easy this is. "Hi Leoben."

"Kara put the knife down." His voice has an undercurrent of apprehension despite being as calm as possible and he doesn't dare move for fear it will cause her to insert the knife deeper in her throat. She can see the indecision playing over his features.

"Frack no."

"Kara come on. Please put it down." He begs and she looks as though she is deciding. She never had any plans to kill herself, oh she's thought about it before but never actually had the nerve to do anything about it. It's all part of the master plan, and she'd be damned if she stopped it now. She firmly shook her head, not moving an inch, he moves down a stair and ceases to blink. She realizes he is afraid. "Kara please." He begs her, blue eyes searching her green ones in looking for falsehood and horror at the realization there isn't any.

"I won't if you let me out." Her voice isn't as strong as she wants it to be, Kara surfacing instead of Starbuck, but it has the desired effect anyways. The cylon looks stricken, fear trying to be hidden behind his features but he's not as good of a triad player as she is.

They stand there a few more minutes, the machine working out what to do and Kara praying she doesn't falter. She knows she'll do it if she has to, they both know it's not a bluff. She doesn't want to die, not really, she can deal with anything after all, but she'll do it rather than lose this game.

"Okay than." He says sadly, resigned to her attempt. She takes the stairs up carefully and he holds the door open for her and she waits while he shuts it behind him. She promises herself it's the last time she'll see what's inside of it. She's going to be free again, provided she doesn't screw up the next few minutes. The elation, try as she might, can't quite get out of her system and she has to force herself to walk calmly as he unlocks the steel door.

"Take me out of here." She orders and he wordlessly starts down the corridor, herself staying a few steps next to him. They don't run into anyone, and she silently commits things to memory. Three steps forward, middle fork, left ,right, left, until it all gets jumbled and confusing. Designed that way she is sure. Down another set of stairs and then the same sort of pattern to get to another pair staricases.

Only this time there's a cylon standing at the top of the stairs between levels three and two. Leoben freezes as though he is turned to stone. The man infront of them, is a two copy, that she is sure, but he doesn't look like the Leoben she is familiar with at all. His eyes are jet black, same as his hair, and he has this beat up leather jacket and a smirk on his face. He's looking at her and it reminds her of guys who'd look at her in bars, not even hiding what they were thinking, even while she was on someone else's arm.

"Taking the pet for a walk Leoben?" The cylon sneers and she bristles a bit at being considered a pet. She's clearly become just an object, a pawn in their little game of wills. "I've never seen her in person before." The cylon remarks in an icy voice that grates on her nerves and takes a step forward, unafraid of the knife and grabs her cheek turning her head to see her profile. "Pretty little thing." The moist voice whispers on her ear and she pulls away, causing him to laugh.

Every nerve in her is screaming run but to where she's not sure. Her plan is collapsing around her ears and she knows it. On one hand she's got the creepy new cylon and on the other is Leoben. She tries to take a step backwards again but the more sinister version of Leoben grabs her shoulder and effortlessly takes her knife away. "Where do you think you're going doll-face?"

Leoben's chosen this moment to move forward "Jared don't you dare touch her." The threat is filled with promise and Leoben's hands are balled into fists. It makes her realize Leoben and this cylon don't get along, but the realization is cut off from farther going along by her struggles, all of which are pointless. Eventually his left hand goes around her throat making her see stars, not the good kind either. He presses her against the wall and Leoben's moving back towards them. Leoben is angry; no, he is downright furious she's never seen him like that before. "Jared, If you think I won't punish you or this then-"

She doesn't realize until the gunshot, the new cylon, Jared, has a gun. She watches horrified as Leoben's body falls the concrete ground. He's still trying to move forward, to get Jared's hands off her neck but the cylon fires again into Leoben's gut. Courses in the Academy tell her shooting someone in the stomach is one of the most painful ways to die. Leoben's breathing is labored and the cylon smiles.

"Now who is better Baby bro." His oily voice moves through the air, his voice the embodiment of all the voices of things that go bump in the night and why children run to their parents in fear. "Don't worry about downloading, I've got a nice hard-drive for you to exist on forever." Leoben's eyes go wide at whatever the implication is, "Enjoy cold storage. And just think, if I'm nice you'll only be in there forever. Or maybe I'll get bored and take you out to use you as target practice. Either way." Jared cocks his gun again. "Have a nice life." And unleashes a fury of bullets, even after Leoben is dead is corpse is still riddled with the cylon's bullets, a never ending fury.

Kara's vision has dancing black spots and her lungs cry out for air. Her limbs go weak as she tries to conserve her air. Jared doesn't care, he watches her struggle and then lets go, as she recovers and tries to move away his dark eyes watch her lazily. He looks almost bored, like she is a toy.

His arm snakes out and grabs her wrist again. "We have some ground rules to cover." He says tonelessly as she tries to pull away, all to no avail. "Junior cylons call me sir. Others call me Jared. But you, you will address me as Master. Got it slave?" Before she can complain or protest this new development the butt of the gun is coming down on her forehead and darkness swirls around her. It claims her quickly, and she realizes she is probably going to have a concussion. She also realizes things just got very bad. And then the dark takes her completely.