fic (24/bsg): life for the living
Title: Life For The Living
Fandom: BSG/24
Summary: A thank you to _ila_ for the lovely header and the yummy 6/9 goodies she's been providing me! *hugs* She spoils me, seriously. I was working on a Caprica/Nina Earth!fic, but that didn't really go anywhere, so this is attempt number 2. It's not quite femslash but it's about the Natalie/Nina relationship after leaving the fleet.
At the end of it all - the end of the worlds, the end of four models, the end of the chase that had sent the remnants of humanity across the galaxy - when the dust settled, Natalie was left with nothing but the five she had been seeking. Looking at the deadened faces of those sitting before her, it didn’t seem like enough.
They had come reluctantly. Four of them had roots so deeply engrained in humanity that it was a wonder she could tear them away at all. There were no goodbyes, just a solemn march to a death she knew couldn’t come quickly enough. They would die for the human race. Die for the enemy that was no longer an enemy.
“Where are we going?” the Ten - Sam - asked. “Or can you not tell us?” His tone was undeniably bitter.
Natalie smiled, a bright false smile that fooled no one. “We’re going home,” she said. “To our homeworld. It’s been abandoned for awhile, since the war. Our war, I mean.”
“And what, we’re just going to wait to die?” Eleven leaned her head against the back of her metal seat. “Or wait around for forty years to attack Earth?”
“God has a plan for us,” Natalie said, knowing even as she did that it was the wrong thing to say. “It’s His will that we come together.”
“That doesn’t answer his question,” the Seven snapped, glaring at her with the full force of his single eye.
Natalie looked at Leoben, manning the Heavy Raider, but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t spoken since Kara’s death. “We’re going to live,” she said, turning back to face them. “We’re going to live together in harmony, the way that He wants us to.”
The four models exchanged glances, silently agreeing to give up on her. She hadn’t given up on them.
**
Nina recognized the small planet the moment it came into view. It looked like what she knew of Libris, very green with little water. “This is it,” she said conversationally. “This is where we came from.” It was the first thing she had said since the four people (who weren’t people) had entered her room on the Enkidu and stuck her on a Raptor. She hadn’t said a word through the many interrogations she had been subjected to, violence and mind games she knew the others hadn’t endured because they were family.
The Six, the one that had a human name, smiled beatifically. “Yes,” she smiled. “This is home.” She reached out and touched Nina’s hand, such reverence in the touch that she wanted to recoil.
**
Natalie had recognized all five of the models from the first. The resistance fighters were obvious, and the shock that these people, these men that had gone to every end to destroy her and her people, were the same ones she had sought out so desperately was tempered by the thrill of vindication. They couldn’t fight what they were.
The Eleven, Roslin’s assistant, had been in the resistance too. She had spent time in detention, wound up in the hospital once, where Natalie had sewn her arm shut.
It was the Nine that intrigued her. They had met only once, on New Caprica as well, mere days into the occupation. It had been a long time since Natalie had felt actual sun on her skin, as pale and weak as it was through the flat clouds.
The trees weren’t quite green; instead, a mottled yellow that could either brighten or crumple. She touched one, every now and then, to feel the texture - some flexible, others already crispy.
She had discovered the stream only yesterday, and hadn’t had a chance to explore it. It ran quickly, as though eager to get someplace she knew it never would. Ducking to dip her fingers in it, she closed her eyes at the feel of the heavy water rushing around her, the solidity of her flesh no more an obstacle than the wind in her hair.
It was easy to fall asleep like that, back against a tree, wet hands crossed over her stomach, and she would have slept for a long time if it hadn’t been for the light footsteps trailing across the leaves that had fallen.
“Who’s there?” she called, standing slowly and straightening, only to find the metal barrel of a gun in her face. The woman holding it was small, about 5’4”, with dark brown wavy hair that came to just above her shoulders. Every muscle in her body was tensed, Natalie noted in her own mind, despite the fact that she was the one with the gun. Her voice wasn’t entirely steady when she asked “Who are you?”
“Gods,” the woman muttered, like a curse. “You’re one of them. What the hell are you doing out here?” She didn’t sound scared at being face to face with one of the machines that had nearly wiped out the human race, merely frustrated and annoyed.
Natalie eyed the gun, which hadn’t moved. “I could ask you the same thing. You know that weapons of any kind have been outlawed in this settlement,” she added, pushing her luck.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Right, another one of Baltar’s decrees. Although I guess Baltar isn’t the one issuing them anymore,” she said, a hint of a smirk on her lips as though she was privy to every detail of the government’s workings. For a second, Natalie actually believed that she could be. “Can’t blame me for trying, though. A girl’s gotta survive somehow.” The woman tightened her fingers around the gun, and Natalie instinctively tensed up every muscle that had relaxed in their conversation, only to find herself looking at the handhold of the weapon. She took it quickly and clicked the safety on.
Not really sure what to do, Natalie simply gestured towards the small population of tents and said “You’d better start heading back, it’s almost curfew.”
“Right,” the woman replied. “Easy to forget when you haven’t had one since seventh grade.” The smirk that had been playing at her lips was now in full force, could have been a smile were it not for the distinct lack of warmth in her eyes. “See you around, then - Six, isn’t it?”
“Natalie,” she corrected her, and then thought she wasn’t sure she wanted this woman to know her name. It was too late to take it back, though - it had been spoken and the woman was walking off, not a glance over her shoulder to see if the Cylon was following. She was long gone by the time Natalie realized she hadn’t answered either of her questions.
**
“What did you do in the fleet?” Tory asked, lounging on the overstuffed couch of the house they had been shepherded and locked into.
“Not a whole lot,” she answered. “I was a computer analyst back on Caprica, but there wasn’t much use for that in the fleet. I worked with the government at the beginning, putting together criminal profiles and that sort of thing, but that didn’t take long. Worked as a bartender on a couple of the cruisers, that was a real blast.” She quirked her mouth into a half smile that didn’t seem like a smile at all.
Chief Tyrol lifted his head from his knees. “Why you?” he wondered. “We’re all - Tigh’s the XO of Galactica, I’m the Chief of the Deck, Tory’s the President’s Chief of Staff, Sam led the resistance on Caprica and New Caprica - but you didn't really do anything. You don't fit here."
“I’m just lucky, I guess,” Nina said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.
**
It had been a long time since Natalie had been home. Things hadn’t changed much.
She had promised them a life, but living was hard. The Twos were gone, dead in a massacre among themselves that resulted in a hundred dead Leobens but no soul damned by suicide. Living without Kara had proven to be no life at all for them. The Eights kept to themselves, spoke in whispers of a child they all called their daughter, mourned for a fellow Eight corrupted by her time with the humans. Her sister Sixes occupied themselves with Gaius Baltar, dying and insane by his inability to live with his own kind.
The five were settling in as well as could be expected. They, too, kept to themselves, and Natalie knew that four of them, at least, longed for a ship called Galactica and a planet called Earth. Ten and Eleven had turned to each other while Seven wandered the city restlessly, waiting for something that seemed closer each day. Twelve found himself once more with Boomer, who had in a fit of regret orchestrated the destruction of the Cavils.
Nine went for a run every morning and didn’t speak often, but every now and then Natalie caught her staring at something, focused with that look of superiority in her eyes that made her wonder just what she knew and wasn’t sharing.
“On New Caprica,” Natalie said one day, sitting next to her on the porch swing outside her house, “just a few days after we arrived, you found me by that little stream and put a gun to my head.” She glanced sideways, but Nine was staring at something in the distance. “I asked you what you were doing out there. You never answered my question.”
“I didn’t put a bullet in your skull, either,” Nine replied. “I’d take what you have.”
Natalie shook her head. “Why didn’t you? I was the enemy. I had just taken over your homes after chasing you through space for over a year in an attempt to kill you. Why wouldn’t you kill me?”
Still not turning to face her, Nine shrugged slightly. “No reason to,” she said.
“Not revenge? Satisfaction? Even glory,” Natalie mused, not hiding her incredulity at the answer she’d received. “You would have been a hero. Blew the brains out of a skinjob - it was something to be rewarded.” She laughed bitterly.
They sat in silence for several long moments, and when Nine finally did turn her head, her eyes were cold. “There was nothing in it for me,” she said simply.
Natalie stared at her before shaking her head and standing up. “You know,” she murmured, “they were right. You’re a much better human than Cylon.” Nina didn’t look up as the Six walked away.
Fandom: BSG/24
Summary: A thank you to _ila_ for the lovely header and the yummy 6/9 goodies she's been providing me! *hugs* She spoils me, seriously. I was working on a Caprica/Nina Earth!fic, but that didn't really go anywhere, so this is attempt number 2. It's not quite femslash but it's about the Natalie/Nina relationship after leaving the fleet.
At the end of it all - the end of the worlds, the end of four models, the end of the chase that had sent the remnants of humanity across the galaxy - when the dust settled, Natalie was left with nothing but the five she had been seeking. Looking at the deadened faces of those sitting before her, it didn’t seem like enough.
They had come reluctantly. Four of them had roots so deeply engrained in humanity that it was a wonder she could tear them away at all. There were no goodbyes, just a solemn march to a death she knew couldn’t come quickly enough. They would die for the human race. Die for the enemy that was no longer an enemy.
“Where are we going?” the Ten - Sam - asked. “Or can you not tell us?” His tone was undeniably bitter.
Natalie smiled, a bright false smile that fooled no one. “We’re going home,” she said. “To our homeworld. It’s been abandoned for awhile, since the war. Our war, I mean.”
“And what, we’re just going to wait to die?” Eleven leaned her head against the back of her metal seat. “Or wait around for forty years to attack Earth?”
“God has a plan for us,” Natalie said, knowing even as she did that it was the wrong thing to say. “It’s His will that we come together.”
“That doesn’t answer his question,” the Seven snapped, glaring at her with the full force of his single eye.
Natalie looked at Leoben, manning the Heavy Raider, but he didn’t say anything. He hadn’t spoken since Kara’s death. “We’re going to live,” she said, turning back to face them. “We’re going to live together in harmony, the way that He wants us to.”
The four models exchanged glances, silently agreeing to give up on her. She hadn’t given up on them.
**
Nina recognized the small planet the moment it came into view. It looked like what she knew of Libris, very green with little water. “This is it,” she said conversationally. “This is where we came from.” It was the first thing she had said since the four people (who weren’t people) had entered her room on the Enkidu and stuck her on a Raptor. She hadn’t said a word through the many interrogations she had been subjected to, violence and mind games she knew the others hadn’t endured because they were family.
The Six, the one that had a human name, smiled beatifically. “Yes,” she smiled. “This is home.” She reached out and touched Nina’s hand, such reverence in the touch that she wanted to recoil.
**
Natalie had recognized all five of the models from the first. The resistance fighters were obvious, and the shock that these people, these men that had gone to every end to destroy her and her people, were the same ones she had sought out so desperately was tempered by the thrill of vindication. They couldn’t fight what they were.
The Eleven, Roslin’s assistant, had been in the resistance too. She had spent time in detention, wound up in the hospital once, where Natalie had sewn her arm shut.
It was the Nine that intrigued her. They had met only once, on New Caprica as well, mere days into the occupation. It had been a long time since Natalie had felt actual sun on her skin, as pale and weak as it was through the flat clouds.
The trees weren’t quite green; instead, a mottled yellow that could either brighten or crumple. She touched one, every now and then, to feel the texture - some flexible, others already crispy.
She had discovered the stream only yesterday, and hadn’t had a chance to explore it. It ran quickly, as though eager to get someplace she knew it never would. Ducking to dip her fingers in it, she closed her eyes at the feel of the heavy water rushing around her, the solidity of her flesh no more an obstacle than the wind in her hair.
It was easy to fall asleep like that, back against a tree, wet hands crossed over her stomach, and she would have slept for a long time if it hadn’t been for the light footsteps trailing across the leaves that had fallen.
“Who’s there?” she called, standing slowly and straightening, only to find the metal barrel of a gun in her face. The woman holding it was small, about 5’4”, with dark brown wavy hair that came to just above her shoulders. Every muscle in her body was tensed, Natalie noted in her own mind, despite the fact that she was the one with the gun. Her voice wasn’t entirely steady when she asked “Who are you?”
“Gods,” the woman muttered, like a curse. “You’re one of them. What the hell are you doing out here?” She didn’t sound scared at being face to face with one of the machines that had nearly wiped out the human race, merely frustrated and annoyed.
Natalie eyed the gun, which hadn’t moved. “I could ask you the same thing. You know that weapons of any kind have been outlawed in this settlement,” she added, pushing her luck.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Right, another one of Baltar’s decrees. Although I guess Baltar isn’t the one issuing them anymore,” she said, a hint of a smirk on her lips as though she was privy to every detail of the government’s workings. For a second, Natalie actually believed that she could be. “Can’t blame me for trying, though. A girl’s gotta survive somehow.” The woman tightened her fingers around the gun, and Natalie instinctively tensed up every muscle that had relaxed in their conversation, only to find herself looking at the handhold of the weapon. She took it quickly and clicked the safety on.
Not really sure what to do, Natalie simply gestured towards the small population of tents and said “You’d better start heading back, it’s almost curfew.”
“Right,” the woman replied. “Easy to forget when you haven’t had one since seventh grade.” The smirk that had been playing at her lips was now in full force, could have been a smile were it not for the distinct lack of warmth in her eyes. “See you around, then - Six, isn’t it?”
“Natalie,” she corrected her, and then thought she wasn’t sure she wanted this woman to know her name. It was too late to take it back, though - it had been spoken and the woman was walking off, not a glance over her shoulder to see if the Cylon was following. She was long gone by the time Natalie realized she hadn’t answered either of her questions.
**
“What did you do in the fleet?” Tory asked, lounging on the overstuffed couch of the house they had been shepherded and locked into.
“Not a whole lot,” she answered. “I was a computer analyst back on Caprica, but there wasn’t much use for that in the fleet. I worked with the government at the beginning, putting together criminal profiles and that sort of thing, but that didn’t take long. Worked as a bartender on a couple of the cruisers, that was a real blast.” She quirked her mouth into a half smile that didn’t seem like a smile at all.
Chief Tyrol lifted his head from his knees. “Why you?” he wondered. “We’re all - Tigh’s the XO of Galactica, I’m the Chief of the Deck, Tory’s the President’s Chief of Staff, Sam led the resistance on Caprica and New Caprica - but you didn't really do anything. You don't fit here."
“I’m just lucky, I guess,” Nina said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes.
**
It had been a long time since Natalie had been home. Things hadn’t changed much.
She had promised them a life, but living was hard. The Twos were gone, dead in a massacre among themselves that resulted in a hundred dead Leobens but no soul damned by suicide. Living without Kara had proven to be no life at all for them. The Eights kept to themselves, spoke in whispers of a child they all called their daughter, mourned for a fellow Eight corrupted by her time with the humans. Her sister Sixes occupied themselves with Gaius Baltar, dying and insane by his inability to live with his own kind.
The five were settling in as well as could be expected. They, too, kept to themselves, and Natalie knew that four of them, at least, longed for a ship called Galactica and a planet called Earth. Ten and Eleven had turned to each other while Seven wandered the city restlessly, waiting for something that seemed closer each day. Twelve found himself once more with Boomer, who had in a fit of regret orchestrated the destruction of the Cavils.
Nine went for a run every morning and didn’t speak often, but every now and then Natalie caught her staring at something, focused with that look of superiority in her eyes that made her wonder just what she knew and wasn’t sharing.
“On New Caprica,” Natalie said one day, sitting next to her on the porch swing outside her house, “just a few days after we arrived, you found me by that little stream and put a gun to my head.” She glanced sideways, but Nine was staring at something in the distance. “I asked you what you were doing out there. You never answered my question.”
“I didn’t put a bullet in your skull, either,” Nine replied. “I’d take what you have.”
Natalie shook her head. “Why didn’t you? I was the enemy. I had just taken over your homes after chasing you through space for over a year in an attempt to kill you. Why wouldn’t you kill me?”
Still not turning to face her, Nine shrugged slightly. “No reason to,” she said.
“Not revenge? Satisfaction? Even glory,” Natalie mused, not hiding her incredulity at the answer she’d received. “You would have been a hero. Blew the brains out of a skinjob - it was something to be rewarded.” She laughed bitterly.
They sat in silence for several long moments, and when Nine finally did turn her head, her eyes were cold. “There was nothing in it for me,” she said simply.
Natalie stared at her before shaking her head and standing up. “You know,” she murmured, “they were right. You’re a much better human than Cylon.” Nina didn’t look up as the Six walked away.