Chapter 21-
Leoben-
He's caught in a trap, the worst of kinds. If he chooses to attack, Kara dies, but if chooses to wait on attacking and let the crazed machine kill someone, someone died either way. "Go ahead, Make your choice" the copy of himself, his own features twisted into something Leoben can't decipher sneer at him and his hesitation.
He can see what is on the cylons features, and it scares him that one of his, one of his twos, as much as Jared is an oddball, Leoben has never seen him this way, never wanted to see anything this way. Revenge he would understand, but this, it's cruelty, it's anger and it's twisted malice Leoben has never before seen from one of his own, something only seen in stories the humans tell about one another. 'You are truly no greater than we are' Kara's own words, from so long ago, ring in his head and Leoben knows, maybe they started out machines but they have taken on humanity, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
"Don't hurt them, Jared we can work this all out. Useless deaths won't solve anything." He tries to negotiate, another cylon runs off for more medical equipment and he sees the first stretcher he'd told to find them in the building arrive, everything is paused, all eyes on the cylon crouched next to the two humans, brandishing a pocketknife ages old. No one dared to move, in fear one slight misstep would set the cylon off.
"Make me feel better." The cylon mummers.
"No it won't, it's not Kara or Sam you hate, it's Admiral Adama you hate." At his words the cylon pulls more resolve to kill around him, the words bringing an element of danger to the room. Damn Adama men. Leoben thought bitterly. He knows something bad is about to happen, he can feel it with everything he is. This is a place where the stream parts, two different destinies, two different roads.
"Their deaths hurt him, tear him to pieces and kill him," the cylon explained and waited for Leoben's answer on who to condemn, shifting the pocket knife to Kara's lovely throat, her skin pale and sweaty, her unconscious body trembling as it breathed. Beads of blood appear at the knife's point and Leoben knows he can't do this. He can't let her die, Losing Sam would kill her, but he can't lose Kara. He can't let her go. She means everything to him. He's nothing without her.
"Don't kill her. No matter what you do, don't kill her" Leoben orders, the voice that had been voicing his wants held no fear, and he was pleased in some part of his mind it didn't tremble. Black eyes met blue and made a choice. A choice was made, though Leoben wished it hadn't. Blood for blood, one life for another, an ever repeating story, the players changing but the story, this part the same. The moment before everything shattered.
"Okay. I'll kill Sam instead, just like you wanted" Jared said calm, as though they had just discussed the weather. He monitions for the Centurions to take him out, but Jared is too fast. Leoben knows inside the path the stream has taken, and he knows what happens next. Quick as wink, Jared is only holding the handle of the knife, the rest of the knife buried deep inside Samuel Anders.
Shoots go off, and Leoben is forced to watch blue eyes look up at him. They blamed him, it was all his fault, with his choice he had set off a chain of events that would shape the universe forever, again, just like the last cycle. Moving on instinct he gets the rest of the cylons to help him, and get Sam to Simon as fast as possible. He promises the dying man Kara will be okay, and not even waiting for the second stretcher to arrive, Leoben lifts her fragile body into his arms, taking a blanket that has come out of nowhere to cover her from prying eyes.
Everything is truly a blur, Leoben doesn't remember where his feet are taking him, what way they took him out of the cells but it's fast, the only thing that mattered was the lives of two people in the balance, His concern for Kara is first, her husband second. He knows it is useless, this hope that the story will change this time, spare them the pain.
At medical, a six dedicated to helping Simon took Kara from his arms and placed her on the bed nearby, moving to work instantly. Samuel is rushed into the operating room, and Multiple Simons appear, moving to try to work their art into saving the man's life.
Hours pass, and he just sits on an uncomfortable chair, numb on the inside and out. The government has been by, but they agreed to incarcerate Jared until he could tell them what happened. He hears Kara should be waking up soon, and the scope of her injures was greater than it appeared. Internal bleeding, broken bones, oxygen deprivation, traces of drugs in her system, add in the mess of bruises and wounds she had, medical decided to keep her as isolated from the world as possible. Not a care unit, but just shut off without visitors.
Its Samuel he has no news of, and he prays at least for Kara's sake he is okay. He feels the man hovering on the edge of the stream, and Leoben wills him back. He's decided to make every kind of bargain he can, to save this man, he made Kara happy. He'd let Kara go, watch her from afar like he used to, make sure they were safe. If only for her sake did he hope this man was okay so be it. If it meant losing Kara than he would take it, she didn't need this pain, she'd had enough grief and agony.
Come on Samuel the cylon urged with his mind as he felt the man near the edge of the stream again. Hang in there. But the man is slipping, farther and farther away, and it seems the harder Leoben prays for him to come back, come back for Kara, farther the man drifts out of the stream until he's gone altogether. Just like he had the last cycle. A minute later a nurse exits and tells him what he already knows.
Samuel didn't make it.
Kara-
Her mind is blank, as flat and lifeless as she feels. She knows where she is, been there before in fact, it's gray and blank. She remembered it as a kid, not so much as an adult. After a beating sometimes it would come when she had been hurt badly, numb from the pain, numb from the world. She existed and yet she didn't. It was calm here, she was safe, nothing could get here right here, where she was alone. There was something hovering on the edge of her mind but she refused to remember it right now.
It was going to bring pain with it. She didn't think she could stand it, just let me be for a little while longer.
But it refused to be ignored, and as she clung to the edges of her make believe world, where nothing hurt and no monsters existed, fell away, memories came rushing back in. A cell, the smell of blood, blacking out, Sam dying.
Sam. The name burns itself in her mind, she killed another man. Didn't she? She can't remember anything anymore. The images confuse her, a knife, the knife Kendra Shaw had gotten from Admiral Cain, over Sam's body. A door banging open, hands around her neck, things going black, and then it stops. Nothing else is there.
She opened her eyes and knows right away she's in a hospital. It's not Galactica, she can't hear the ships familiar hum. It's nowhere she recognizes, which she knows should worry her. Taking in the sights she sucks in a breath as a Six, sitting in a chair meant for visitors pensively stares out the window, not noticing she's awake.
"Can we wait on round two; don't feel up to it right about now. How about two weeks from now? Should be enough time to sell tickets." Starbuck, from her long locked away place in Kara's mind pipes up and the Six turns to look at her. She's different from the others, Kara can see that, but she doesn't much care. The synthetic woman eyes widen at the malice in her words and than are replaced by something Kara can't understand at first until she looks a little closer. It only makes her angry, who is this cylon to pity her? How can they do that, break her world into pieces then claim they feel sorry for her anguish at what they did?
"I'm sorry Leoben isn't here, He has to be somewhere else, he asked me to stay with you, I'm Caprica." The audacity of the cylons makes her want to puke. Did they have a Tauron among them, how about Aquaria? Picon? Did they name themselves after colonies like a calling card? Another sick game cylons played? They probably took trophies, pieces of ruble from important buildings, a kid's sunglasses. It wouldn't surprise her.
"So I guess you must be the bitch that blew up my planet if you're called Caprica." Starbuck is in full form, Kara pushed to the back, hurts and wounds can wait, she can't let them know how worried she is about Sam. they'll use it against her, lie to her. The woman flushes, though from shame or modesty, Kara can't tell. Doesn't care either.
"I'm here as Leoben's friend." the cylon begins and Kara's curious in spite of herself, when did he renter the picture. She figured he must have downloaded and been stored somewhere, never to be seen from again. "He can't be available right this exact second but I'll go get him."
"I don't want to see him."
The female imitation paused than turned back around, "Then who do you want to see?" she seemed genuinely confused at the question. It was as though she didn't know that Kara would have no wish to see her captor, the one who locked her up in a dollhouse all that time, away from her people, Sam, her friends.
"Sam." Kara begrudged her and hates it when sympathy clouds over the bright blue eyes of the cylon. No no she's wrong her mind argues.
"I'm probably not the right person for this, but" The cylon broke off, looking at something off in the distance, her head tilted as though listening to someone before continuing onwards with what she was saying. "He died, several days ago, when we brought him in, we did everything we could but-"
"Get out." the words are calm, but small. The cylon stops before trying to continue and Kara can't take it anymore. "GET OUT!" the words are ripped from her throat, making everything in her hurt but it's not true. They're lying to her again, nothing they say can be trusted. They are twisted, manipulative motherfrackers who got off on her pain, this is just another trick, another lie. It has to be.
The cylon looks like she wants to say something but thinks better of it, and calmly walks out the door to her room. The lock clicks and it's so much like Caprica all over again she has to fight down panic. But somewhere in her, she knows Sam couldn't have survived that abuse. She thinks she would feel it, feel he was alive like she had last time, no such comfort is there this time. Tears run down her face and sobs shake her body, as she mourned another man whose love killed him.
He died because of me.
They bury him a few days later. Leoben has somehow gotten a coffin, and he had Centurions dig a grave. Still, not well enough to stand and because of the cylons insistence she not over exert herself, they've made her use a wheelchair, making her feel farther invalid. It's a very simple affair, just the two of them, in a place on the other side of the planet, surrounded by trees in a grove, with a headstone made of metal, 'so it won't wear away easily' or whatever Leoben said. She doesn't listen anymore.
She may have married Sam to get away from Lee, but she still loved Sam all the same. It wasn't like it was with Lee, but it was just as special in it's own way. His calm blue eyes, never asking for more than she could give, with quiet ways of showing affection, playing pyramid and suspecting he let her win more often than not. Accepting what she had to give him without regrets or demands for more.
Pulling herself from the chair, under Leoben's watchful, silent gaze, she knelt on the ground, ignoring the twinges of pain the movement brought. They'd moved her back to the apartment from hell yesterday, only difference being it was Leoben who slept on the couch this time. Too tired to argue she hadn't pitched a fit. She simply didn't care anymore. Everything had been taken from her, her small hopes that had begun to bloom, maybe she wasn't a screw up, maybe this man really did love her, maybe they could have a family. It was all torn to shreds, especially with Simon's news that she had miscarried, having assumed she had known she was pregnant with Sam's child. Not anymore. Just another thing of him, taken away. What did I do to deserve this Lords?
She thinks she knows, not escaping from the cylon earlier, not fighting until she couldn't, for giving up, for being weak. Girls like you never get happy ever afters anyways Kara. Always remember that. Her mother's voice booms around her head, and again, Kara is forced to concede she is right.
Leoben had shown up by her bedside in the hospital room with a few pictures of him, which now resided in her pocket. His own blue eyes held a measure of grief, though Kara can't imagine why, he didn't kill Sam. Tears fall again, as she presses her hands into the dirt of Sam's grave, he was really gone. He had taken almost everything of her with him, and she wanted to join him more often than not. Maybe than things wouldn't hurt so much.
Leoben-
Standing in front of the cylon high council was hard. It was hard enough dealing with them while on the council itself, let alone standing before it, Landon in his place, the man's almost-permanently amused expression now sobered with the situation.
Cavil looks none-too-pleased and though Jared is his favorite Two, his one ally among them, he can't deny the law that says a cylon who boxes another with the express vote is boxed themselves. It's just what Leoben wants to do to the drive the convicted cylon is on, that Cavil has an issue with.
"You want to destroy it. Go at like an ape over a banana still with its skin on it?" his disdain for this idea, destroying the drive he is on, is simply mocked openly by the One and Leoben must fight to keep his cool. He knows this has no precedent, but he knows for Kara's sake he has to do it; he thinks he is going to go crazy if he doesn't. He needs to get some kind of revenge for her, every time he looks at her sad, lifeless green eyes he wants to kill his brother two more and more, permanently seems like a good idea. This way he can never be around again, there will never be another.
Kara had been waking up in the middle of the night, screaming and crying, terrorized he was after her again. Gentling soothing her as she clung to him while her entire being shook, he reassured her he would let nothing happen to her. She'd called him Sam multiple times throughout the entire thing, and hadn't seemed to know who he actually was. It stung, but Leoben decided to accept it. He wanted to be able to reassure her Jared could never go after her again, after all, someone could be unboxed. But their information lost beyond the downloading range, impossible to recover. It seemed an ideal solution.
"Jared was, to put it simply, going off the deep end. He became what he despised, a cruel sadistic human-like cylon. If we accept that humanity is flawed, then imitating them and their manners that only some of the most barbaric humans do, what does that say about him? Humans that way generally have a medical illness of the mind, but he choose to take on that path, he choose to take that role in the stream, and for his actions he must be punished, completely erased. Gone."
The cylons mummer at the truth in his words, none of them liked Jared. Three smiles like a cat with a canary, always the devil's advocate, "You sure this isn't for personal reasons?"
"It is personal." Leoben argued, having seen this question coming. "Which is why it matters so much, if we let him loose he'll do it again, it destroys what we are, an insidious root, a corrupting virus. If he turned that way, how many others will follow before we destroy ourselves completely? If we kill the root now, we show, both human and cylon, that kind of behavior, is not tolerated on both sides."
D'Anna smiles and he knows he has won her over, just the Ones now. Black eyes glitter at him, full of arrogance and pompousness. "So, you're voting we stop all punishments against those who commit a crime because you find it inhumane? That's a bright idea there." the words sneer at him, and Leoben is gripping his chair with white knuckles, resisting the urge to scream that it was needed. Only Jared could reduce him to this.
"With all respect Cavil, there is a difference between roughing someone up because they did something wrong and raping a woman who didn't do anything besides exist." Why can't Cavil see that Jared needs to be killed, its better for all of them, and he can say he was right now.
Something shifts in the elder cylons face, and Leoben can't see what it is, but it is enough. "Alright fine, box him than destroy the drive." The vote is called, all in Leoben's favor and the heavy raider is prepped with the cylon in the drive on board, along with Leoben himself.
He plots in the data coordinates, jumping to full capacity, again and again and again until for sure out of range. Soon he stops than goes to the back, lifting up a hammer, revenge may not do anything for Kara, or her condition, or Samuel's death, but this feels good right now. It is a step in the right direction.
Again, thanks to all my reviewers and readers, and I hope you liked this chapter.