FIC: Epiphany

[embolalia]

Title: Epiphany

Rating: PG
Characters: Leoben & Caprica

Words: 962

Summary: On New Caprica, Leoben and Caprica Six discuss failure and strategy.

Author's Note: A fix-it! Because it never quite made sense for Leoben to change tactics. As far as timelines: I rewatched the first couple episodes of season 3 last night for “research” and there’s no point at which the Kara/Leoben storyline actually intersects the Gaius/Caprica/death lists storyline until the end of Exodus, so I’m choosing to take a little creative license and sync them up where I like. Just so you know :)

*****

Air surges into his lungs and Leoben arches, gasping, in the viscous fluid.

The dim light burns at his eyes as he blinks them clear. He glances around for the others, for Boomer, for D’Anna. The room is empty except for him and a few dozen dark resurrection tanks.

The others have gotten tired of him, of his obsession with Kara, his lack of interest in the rest of the human population. They don’t understand how important Kara is. He can feel it when he’s with her: the glory she’ll know, the power she’ll have to shift the flow of the stream in its entirety. They’ve always been blind to the stream.

And if she loved him, it wouldn’t matter. But she doesn’t.

For a moment it wells up in his chest like an ache and he wonders what would happen if he slipped back into the tub, breathed deep. He glances to the left, at the empty body waiting for Kara’s next bout of anger or cunning. There’s no solution there. No way through to the future he can feel vibrating through him every moment.

The tub on his other side comes suddenly alight, its gears whirring. A Six cries out as she’s born, and Leoben stands on shaky new legs, rising to greet his sister, to assure her she’s not alone.

Her hands flail, one grasping his as the other gropes at her forehead. “He shot me,” she gasps, face creased in pain. “Doral. He shot me.” Her hand clutches his as Leoben reaches an arm around her, pulls her up out of the tub to sit on the edge beside him.

“You’re alright now,” he offers, stroking her hair gently. They see so much violence and pain, the sixes. “He won’t hurt you again.”

And she meets his eyes, and smiles, because she knows he always tells the truth the best he can. Her face falls. “We’re failing here. This is not what God wants from us.”

Leoben nods. “I know.”

“Did you see?” she asks. “Do you know?” Her eyes beg him for some small amount of certainty, of clarity, but for once he has none.

“She killed me again,” he says instead. “Kara. She tried to kill herself and when I stopped her she grabbed the blade and stabbed it through my eye.”

Caprica hears what he doesn’t say: if he knew how to do this right, how to win their love, he would be doing it. “They’ve started bombing us again,” she says sadly. “Just like on Caprica. The same humans even. The man Boomer and I let go, Sam Anders--I saw him running away from one of the attacks.”

“And did you stop him?”

“No.” She shakes her head, her eyes sad. “I’m not sure he’s wrong.”

She’s begun to shiver and Leoben rises, crosses to the edge of the room and brings back towels for both of them. Caprica swings her legs out of the tub and begins to dry off.

He wrestles with the question, with her doubt, before asking softly. “You don’t believe in this mission anymore? You were the one, the first one, who said that if we provided for them they would welcome us with open arms. That it was God’s plan.” His voice is growing agitated, his own doubt showing through. “You said Gaius loves you. A human loves you.”

“Yes.” For a moment she’s happy. “But that’s not all that’s important. This is not co-habitation, it’s dominance and submission as much as when they enslaved us. There are entire species to consider.”

“Kara can give us that.”

Pity flickers in her eyes, the way the others look at him.

Leoben turns away from it. “Then how do we change the dynamic?” he asks. “What do you believe God wants from us instead?”

Caprica shrugs helplessly. “There has to be a future, something that we can both live with. Before we came here, Boomer and I knew what it looked like: all of us side by side, Gaius with me, Galen with her. Peace. But they don’t want it. Gaius only wants me because I tricked him into it before he knew what I was. It was just a dream.” Her voice has grown smaller and smaller and trails off now. Caprica’s face looks broken as she meets Leoben’s eyes.

“A future,” he says slowly.

She nods. “Even the Hera child died. There’s no proof humans and cylons will ever be able to live as one people, or that we should.” She swallows hard. “If we have to be two, maybe we should just be apart.”

Her last words never reach him. “There’s no proof,” Leoben says slowly, “but they don’t know that.”

“And even if we are together...” She sees again the gun at Gaius’ temple. “They’ll die. And we won’t.” She strokes the tank gently. “We’ll just  be here, without them, alone.” Caprica looks up sharply. “Do you know? Do you know if we’ll ever have a child?”

Leoben reaches out to touch her cheek, to offer comfort. “I don’t know.”

Caprica sighs, leaning into the contact for just a moment. “I need to go make sure Gaius is alright.”

He grabs her shoulder as she pulls away, says one of the few things he knows is true. “His love for you is real; you swim together in the stream. Your trick worked.”

She smiles for one incandescent moment. “Thank you.”

When she’s gone, he sits alone among the empty bodies a few minutes longer. If it’s a future that Kara needs, he can offer her that. It’s not even a lie; he knows as surely as breathing that he has always been swimming along side her, and always will. Now all he needs is a child.

 

Comments

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

I could see how Caprica and Leoben would feel a connection and talk like this. Good job showing what they might have been feeling/thinking when they realized that their 'plan' for New Caprica wasn't going to work.

The last line was a bit of a shock. Would have liked to see his reasoning for going ahead with using a child.

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

I meant that part to come out of what Caprica says--that humans and cylons can't procreate, so maybe they shouldn't be together. Leoben points out that humans don't know that--implying that maybe if he convinces Kara they can, and gives her that future, she'll come around. Sorry if that wasn't clear enough!