(for the prompt: What happened to Kara in those six hours/two months in the Maelstrom?)
1. Kara chose
In her dream, Kara watched her mother's death. In life she had never gone back to her, had been too afraid to see what dying looks like. A soldier faces death all the time but you don't look at it, you don't sit there and face it and hold its hand. If you do you might remember that it is, in fact, coming for you.
It wasn't the last death Kara didn't see. Forty billion people had died back on the planets, and their bodies were already cleared off the streets by the time she walked on them. She never thought about her aunt, or her cousins, or all her childhood friends. It was better not to imagine their bodies strewn across the city.
But in her dream, she didn't run away. "I'm not afraid of death," she said. Not afraid of seeing it, not even close. She knew that she would watch her friends dying, over and over, as the centuries passed. It was an inevitable consequence of her decision not to die.
2. Kara saw Earth
The planet was green, rich and beautiful, with lush valleys and fertile plains. It was probably the best home humanity could find. It also belonged to someone else. She saw them in their bands hunting and she saw them gathering berries and breaking stones into tools.
She wasn't quite human anymore, she knew this because of what she had chosen. It was a completion of the process her mother had begun, burning away her flesh to make her a god. These people had no god, none had come from Kobol for them. She wondered if that was why they had summoned her.
Fire was in her and she gave it to them from herself.
3. Kara saw Earth, again
Her body led her to the place the Thirteenth Tribe had lived, fought and died. She watched her viper fall and crash. One small loss, a small part of what had happened here.
There was death here, but she wasn't afraid of it. She walked through ruins of destroyed buildings and saw bodies strewn among them. This was the place they had come from. This was the place they were coming to, humans, Cylons, all of them. If you destroy your worlds you get a destroyed world. The gods wouldn't want it any other way.
She wasn't afraid of death, so she looked, and she saw it. Soon the Fleet and the Cylons would see it too.
4. Kara chose, again
If Earth was to be found by the Fleet, Kara knew, it would have to be by humans and Cylons together. Earth that was had been a Cylon planet. Earth that would be belonged to another people, and Kara had given them fire, and she wasn't going to lead anyone there before she was convinced that neither the Colonials nor the Cylons were going to do them harm.
Since defeating the Cylons was not going to be possible, that would mean some kind of treaty. That would mean Cylons would have to live.
She wondered if being a soldier made it too easy to forgive. People kill people in war, it's a thing that happens. She thought about Scar the Cylon raider, a soldier like her, dashed against an asteroid. She saw it, like she saw the Earth the Cylons had lived on and lost.
5. Kara returned
Taking on humanity was more difficult in its own way than shedding it. There are things a mortal mind can't remember. Pain blocks out memory. Only some of what she saw could be remembered.
The fears came back as her body formed. She missed Sam. She missed Lee. She wanted Bill to knock her over and call her a cancer, because at least then she wouldn't be alone with herself and her memories. But she knew how to find Earth.
She felt blood and skin and tissues form, so fragile, so ready to die. But it was never her own death that had scared her. She would see many more deaths all around her. She decided she might just be able to handle it.
The Galactica was small in the distance, lonely and desperate. She pulled the flesh of her body around her, then the metal skin of her viper, as she neared it to bring it home.
Five things that happened in six hours or two months
1. Kara chose
In her dream, Kara watched her mother's death. In life she had never gone back to her, had been too afraid to see what dying looks like. A soldier faces death all the time but you don't look at it, you don't sit there and face it and hold its hand. If you do you might remember that it is, in fact, coming for you.
It wasn't the last death Kara didn't see. Forty billion people had died back on the planets, and their bodies were already cleared off the streets by the time she walked on them. She never thought about her aunt, or her cousins, or all her childhood friends. It was better not to imagine their bodies strewn across the city.
But in her dream, she didn't run away. "I'm not afraid of death," she said. Not afraid of seeing it, not even close. She knew that she would watch her friends dying, over and over, as the centuries passed. It was an inevitable consequence of her decision not to die.
2. Kara saw Earth
The planet was green, rich and beautiful, with lush valleys and fertile plains. It was probably the best home humanity could find. It also belonged to someone else. She saw them in their bands hunting and she saw them gathering berries and breaking stones into tools.
She wasn't quite human anymore, she knew this because of what she had chosen. It was a completion of the process her mother had begun, burning away her flesh to make her a god. These people had no god, none had come from Kobol for them. She wondered if that was why they had summoned her.
Fire was in her and she gave it to them from herself.
3. Kara saw Earth, again
Her body led her to the place the Thirteenth Tribe had lived, fought and died. She watched her viper fall and crash. One small loss, a small part of what had happened here.
There was death here, but she wasn't afraid of it. She walked through ruins of destroyed buildings and saw bodies strewn among them. This was the place they had come from. This was the place they were coming to, humans, Cylons, all of them. If you destroy your worlds you get a destroyed world. The gods wouldn't want it any other way.
She wasn't afraid of death, so she looked, and she saw it. Soon the Fleet and the Cylons would see it too.
4. Kara chose, again
If Earth was to be found by the Fleet, Kara knew, it would have to be by humans and Cylons together. Earth that was had been a Cylon planet. Earth that would be belonged to another people, and Kara had given them fire, and she wasn't going to lead anyone there before she was convinced that neither the Colonials nor the Cylons were going to do them harm.
Since defeating the Cylons was not going to be possible, that would mean some kind of treaty. That would mean Cylons would have to live.
She wondered if being a soldier made it too easy to forgive. People kill people in war, it's a thing that happens. She thought about Scar the Cylon raider, a soldier like her, dashed against an asteroid. She saw it, like she saw the Earth the Cylons had lived on and lost.
5. Kara returned
Taking on humanity was more difficult in its own way than shedding it. There are things a mortal mind can't remember. Pain blocks out memory. Only some of what she saw could be remembered.
The fears came back as her body formed. She missed Sam. She missed Lee. She wanted Bill to knock her over and call her a cancer, because at least then she wouldn't be alone with herself and her memories. But she knew how to find Earth.
She felt blood and skin and tissues form, so fragile, so ready to die. But it was never her own death that had scared her. She would see many more deaths all around her. She decided she might just be able to handle it.
The Galactica was small in the distance, lonely and desperate. She pulled the flesh of her body around her, then the metal skin of her viper, as she neared it to bring it home.