Twelve, by Rheanna (R)

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Fandom Category: Battlestar Galactica
Pairing: Lee/Kara, Kara/Baltar, Baltar/Six
Fic Title: Twelve
Author: Rheanna
Link: http://www.goldenmaze.com/twelve.htm
Rating/Warning(s): R for sexual content
Genre: drama, angst, AU
WIP?: no

Why This Must Be Read: An amazing story. Long, plotty drama, with excellent charactization and a wonderful exploration of the line between humanity and cylon. This AU exists on the premise that Lee Adama is one of the cylons, number twelve. Starbuck, Apollo and Adama are extraordinarily well-done, flawed but not overly (which is an issue I have come to have with canon Starbuck and Apollo). The story explores a lot of the themes that eventually came up in the show, but it was written quite a while ago.

Check it out. Definitely one of the best reads in BSG out there.

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Excerpt:

"Then let's get started. First question. Who are the other Cylon agents in the Fleet?"

The answer had to be somewhere in the datastream from the link -- if he could just think clearly enough to figure out how to find it. He closed his eyes, shutting out the real world, and cautiously immersed himself in the barrage of information. He no longer felt the chair underneath him, or the table his arms rested on, or even the sound of his own breathing.

It was like making a dive deep underwater; the further down he went, the greater the pressure on him became, until he felt as if he was about to be crushed by the weight of data pushing at him from all sides. He found what he was looking for buried in a tide of binary code and something that might have been navigation data, and grabbed hold of it before it could rush past. Now all he needed to do was get back again, but when he looked for the light above which would tell him where the surface was, he couldn't find it: the sea of data was preventing him from connecting again with the real world. Then, just as the first strands of panic were starting to form, he heard something -- a clicking sound, somewhere close. He followed it until he was back in the interrogation room.

Kara was leaning across the table, snapping her fingers repeatedly in front of his face. "Well?" she said. "I'm waiting, here."

He was still disoriented, and it was even harder than it had been before to ignore the barrage of information from the link and concentrate on talking. "No others. Just Boomer. And me."

She looked skeptical. "I hope for your sake you're not lying."

"I'm not lying."

"Next question. I want to know the positions of every Cylon base-ship and outpost within fifty light years of the Fleet's current location."

The datastream from the link pounded through his head. He was mentally exhausted, and he wasn't sure he'd have the strength to extract himself from it a second time. "I need to take a break."

"Sorry, but I've got other things to do today. Answer now."

He tried to explain. "There's too much information, and I don't know -- I don't know how to make sense of it. Kara --"

She cut him off. "Let's get a couple of things straight. In the first place, I don't frakking care how difficult this is for you, so don't waste my time telling me. In the second place, my name is Captain Thrace. You will address me as 'Captain' or 'sir'. Are we clear?"

"We're clear."

"We're clear, what?"

"We're clear, sir." His head hurt, and he could hardly think. "Tell me, is this making you feel better?"

"Answer the question."

He ignored her. "Because I get that you're angry, but if you want to punish me, there's not a lot left for you to do. I've already lost everything I ever cared about. Nothing I am belongs to me. I don't even have a name anymore."

"Spare me," Kara said. "My friend is dead, and you're whining about your identity issues."

"I didn't kill him."

"He's still dead." Her voice caught a little on the last word. It was barely noticeable, and he doubted anyone who didn't know her well would have picked it up, but he did know her, even if it was only through memories stolen from someone else. For an instant, he could only see Kara, raw and hurting. He'd only seen her hurt like that once before, when Zak had died. It hit him that she was grieving for him, and that he was seeing something no one ever should -- the mess left behind by his own death.

"I'm sorry," he said, meaning it.

Whatever reaction he'd expected, it wasn't the one he got. Starbuck got up, drew her arm back and hit him square in the jaw. He wasn't ready for it, and so his head cracked back with whiplash speed. For a second afterward, one whole side of his face was numb. Then, slowly, sensation returned, bringing sharp pain just below his ear and the taste of blood in his mouth.

When he could focus, he saw Kara was sitting down again. She was rubbing the knuckles of her right hand with the fingers of her left, but otherwise she was perfectly still. "You want to know what makes me feel better? That." She leaned forward. "Now answer the frakking question."

His face throbbed, but the pain at least provided a distraction from the constant thunder of the datastream from the link. And he'd succeeded in delaying his next immersion in it by a couple of precious minutes.

He turned his thoughts inward again, reluctantly facing the torrent again. This time, the information took longer to retrieve, and it was harder to come up again, even with the physical pain from Kara's punch acting as his anchor to reality.

Speaking was difficult, too, and not just because he had to stop to spit blood several times. When he'd finished relaying a list of the co-ordinates of the nearest Cylon base ships, he said, "I can't do anymore. Not now. Later." He swallowed, the blood creating an unpleasant metallic taste in his mouth. "Please."

Kara looked him up and down, as if appraising his condition. "We'll start again in an hour. Until then, you can spend some quality time catching up on all the news from your cousins back home. You'll enjoy that, right?"

He was too tired and too distracted to do anything except respond with the truth. "No, I won't. It's like being screamed at by a million people at once. And it doesn't stop."

Her expression was unsympathetic. "Too bad it's your only way of staying alive."

"It's my only way of staying me," he said. "The chip means they can't switch me on, like they did to Sharon. I'm not Number Twelve. I won't be."

"I've got bad news for you," Kara said as she got up to leave. "You already are."