Fic: Descant (chapter 13) - Complete!
Title: Descant (Chapter 13)
Rating: R
Characters: Kara/Leoben & ensemble
Word Count (this chapter): 2,685
A/N: This is it!
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Kara reaches for the words. Already it feels like a dream, like a myth she heard as a child. The girl who went into the heavens and came back with knowledge from the Gods, changed, chosen. The clearest image she could offer them would be the starscape where she found herself, the rapid movement of the stream around her almost imperceptible at such a scale.
“Kara,” Daniel says softly.
She looks up at him; the others don’t. “You remember enough.”
She holds his gaze for a long moment, then begins. “I had a vision as I flew into the storm. I saw myself as a kid, the day my father left...and I saw what happened to him, that it wasn’t that he didn’t love me but because he did. Because he was a Cylon and he wanted to protect me...” Kara doesn’t hear the others’ gasps, or feel Leoben’s suddenly tight grip on her arm, she just sees Daniel’s face as he smiles. “And so I went into the storm...”
As she struggles for what happened next, he steps closer. “Here’s what you say,” he begins. “There are some things humanity has never understood.”
“There are some things humanity has never understood,” Kara repeats, and as she continues his words flow from her lips. “The angels Ellen saw, and Sam - they don’t have a word for what they are, but we call them many things. Angels, gods, it doesn’t really matter. On Kobol they lived more closely with humans, and civilization flourished. But then the angels gave them the gift of shepherding souls, and the humans abused it. So we were sent away, Cylons and humans separated for our own good.” Ellen nods.
“Some of them, the angels, believed what had happened was their fault, that they owed it to us to restore unity. And to do that they needed to help us become one people, capable of loving each other, of merging the human and Cylon families back into one whole.”
Kara’s eyes dart around the circle, and she speaks for herself now. “I don’t remember it well, but I was there. I was beside them on the banks of the stream for just a little while. They’d been waiting for thousands of years for a hybrid to be born, a blend of human and Cylon, someone who could lead us all to Earth.” She nods to Athena and Helo. “It might have been Hera, if it wasn’t me. They know better than to count on one way forward. There were eight new Cylons made, seven with souls chosen to be capable of loving, of being loved. Some of them have.” Her eyes dart to Caprica, “And we can have a real future on Earth because their children will make us one people.” Caprica smiles a small, proud smile.
“They told you where Earth is?” Leoben asks.
Kara turns to him, and the belief in his eyes makes her want to cry. This is why she flew into the storm: to see this hope on his face, to offer him this gift. She smiles. “We always knew.”
“Yes,” Daniel says softly.
She looks up at him, standing over her, and for a moment she’s certain that he isn’t her father, but that it’s his song she can hear in her mind. That he’s the one who entrusted this secret to Sam, and to Daniel, and to Kara.
“Go home,” he murmurs, and his eyes are full of love.
*
In the end it’s simpler than she expected. For all of Kara’s fears about Adama when he was railing against her visions, her love of a Cylon, she knows as soon as she reaches his quarters that Tigh’s return has changed him. Their laughter echoes out into the hall, and when Kara steps inside Bill’s eyes seem light for the first time in months.
He shakes his head at her, in awe and pride, then steps forward to pull her into his arms. “Thank you,” he says roughly. Kara hugs him back.
Then she lays it out for him, Tigh filling in the details: the story of the final five, the truth of her own identity. She avoids the question of angels or gods or exactly where she went, but she explains that Sam and the others have always known the coordinates to Earth without understanding what they were.
Bill sits down shakily, staring up at her.
“Are you ready to go?” Kara asks, smiling.
He drops his gaze for a moment. “I lied to you once,” he says sternly. “I told you that Earth was real, that we were going there.”
Kara nods. “You said something else too, right before the worlds ended. You said we’d never asked if we deserved to survive.” She waits until he meets her eyes. “It’s only real, we can only go there, because something in the universe believes that either we deserve it or...or we’re capable of it. Of deserving it. As long as we go together.”
Bill looks across the room at Tigh, his oldest friend, a Cylon, and then up at her. His eyes are bright with emotion as he nods. “Then let’s go.”
*
They sit in stunned silence at the edge of Caprica’s lake. Leoben’s feet are bare and the gentle wind-stirred waves wash clear water over his toes.
Finally Caprica speaks. “It’s true,” she says with quiet pleasure. “I’m going to have a baby.”
Athena grins and hugs Caprica close. When she lets go, Leoben puts his arms her in turn. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother,” he promises.
“Have you seen that?” she asks eagerly.
He pauses, then shakes his head. In the midst of Kara’s revelations has come another. “The things I’ve seen - I’ve had glimpses into the stream, visions of what the angels see.”
Athena nods. “The past, the future.”
“No.” Leoben tilts his head, still trying to understand. “The past perhaps, but--the future is uncertain.” He frowns in confusion. “Kara died and returned, and I never knew she would.”
“I don’t understand,” Caprica says.
He shakes his head, clearing his face, then rests a hand on her cheek. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is--I believe you’ll be a good mother.”
His sister smiles, tears in her eyes. “Kara was right,” she tells him. “God loves us. God gave us this love, to go out into the universe and share with one another.” Caprica lays her hand over his. “Of course she came back to you.”
*
A few hours later, Kara makes her way to the bridge. Everyone has gathered there: the final five, the human and Cylon leaders.
“There must be some way out of here,” Sam says beside her, smirking, and Kara turns to grin at him.
“It’s about frakking time we found Earth,” she answers.
Sam shakes his head. “I still can’t believe it. All those years ago, when Natasha came back to me on that beach...she promised me that writing that song would help end the war. And the whole way back to the Colonies I was so lost, so angry, because it made no difference.”
Kara takes his hand, squeezing gently. “It will now.”
Sam nods. “Yeah. I know.”
She lets go, and reaches for the FTL controls. It took a fair amount of arguing to convince Gaeta and Gaius this wouldn’t be a blind jump, and her heart races slightly as she presses the notes into the keypad. Then she looks up at Leoben, watching her from across the room, and her heart calms. She glances to Adama, waiting for the order. He gives it. She twists the key.
*
Athena and Helo land the Raptor on the grass with only the barest hiss of the engines. Kara unbuckles herself first, then reaches for Hera’s straps. She shifts the child onto her hip, glancing back at the others.
“Go on,” Helo says, nodding, and Kara opens the hatch.
The air is fresh and warm. Kara hugs Hera close as she takes the first step out into the tall grass. They’re in a wide field. In the distance there are trees, and beyond that are mountains.
“It’s the first day of the world,” Kara whispers into the child’s hair, remembering the story from temple, all those years ago. Hera squirms and Kara looks down into her face. She’s just a child. Just a little girl who wants to run free. Kara sets her lightly on her feet, and holds on to the toddler’s hand as they begin to explore their new world.
*
Leoben can still feel the stream, the way it weaves around him and through him, but it’s quieter now. The urgent need to guide Kara is gone. And so he waits for her again, as she wanders with Hera, as she heads off with the scouting party to find better landing sites for the fleet and the other ships that will surely follow. Already they’ve been in touch with those left on New Caprica and the scattered baseships loyal to Natalie. Roslin and Natalie have promised the coordinates to everyone willing to live in peace. It’s an offer no one has yet refused.
Caprica stops to see him a moment, Gaius beside her, and they head out to explore, hand in hand. He remembers envying what they had once; he loves them for showing him it was possible.
The final five are among the first landing parties as well. Tigh and Sam leave to help the fleet scout the planet. Tory stands frozen on the spot as she steps out of a Heavy Raider, staring around at their new home. Galen holds her as she cries. Ellen emerges last, and heads toward Leoben.
“You did it,” she says, full of motherly pride.
Leoben shakes his head. “It was Kara who led us here.”
She smiles knowingly. “You had a role to play in this.” Ellen turns, gazing out across the rolling waves of green. “They still thought, when they sent us back to the Colonies, that humans could be trusted with the power of creation. And then, after what happened with John, they understood. There are some things too powerful for us, some things we shouldn’t have the ability to do.”
Leoben nods, waiting for her to continue.
Ellen glances at him. “So they took it away. When I had created your body, they gave you life.” She reaches out to take his hand. “And look what you’ve done with it.”
They stand together a while, at peace, taking in the new world. Then Ellen leaves and Leoben sits down in the grass. He has always been waiting for her.
*
Kara finds him there, asleep, as the sky darkens toward purple. The air is still warm, so she grabs some blankets and rations from the Raptor and waves to Athena and Helo as they return to Galactica for the night.
She settles in the grass beside Leoben, and traces his face with the tips of her fingers, searching for what’s changed since he she kissed him goodbye and flew into the storm.
His eyes flutter open, and Leoben catches her hand. He holds on hard. “You came back,” he says softly.
“Yes,” Kara answers, and leans down to kiss him. His arms wrap around her, and Kara presses even closer as the heat between them builds. After everything that has passed, they’re both eager for this reunion. They strip away each other’s clothing, their new bodies demanding to be touched, to be consecrated to each other. The virgin earth is soft under Kara’s back as Leoben finally enters her, and she gives herself to him without holding anything back.
“Tell me again,” Leoben murmurs later, resting his head on Kara’s shoulder, and she laughs. The broken grass beneath them smells sweet and sharp, and she feels completely alive.
“One more time,” she teases, but her tone is gentle. Kara runs her fingers lightly down his arm, watching the fine hairs rise under her touch. Everything seems like a miracle now.
“I could hear the music as I flew into the storm,” she says. “I could feel him reaching out for me. And then I was there, in the quiet of the stream between the worlds.”
“With your father?” he prompts.
“Or not my father. But I could feel that he loved me like a daughter. That I’d always been loved.”
“He showed you the stream.”
“Mmm.” Kara sighs, closing her eyes and seeing again the brilliant colors, the abstraction of space and time all around her, perceived not with human eyes but with greater understanding. “It was like watching what had happened and knowing it, all at once. I knew what they’d wanted, what they regretted and what they loved. I could see what they saw, the whole inevitable stream of time shifted just enough to create me. And Hera, and Caprica’s son.”
“And then they showed you your destiny.”
Now she shifts, looking down into his face. “No.” She grins.
Leoben’s eyes darken in concern at the change in the story. “Kara?”
She smiles at his expression. She’s been saving this part just for him. “And then they gave me a choice.” Kara opens her mind, letting him see into her memory. Into that moment, choosing between peace like she’d never known and the chance to come back to him, to all of them, and lead them to Earth. “The universe is built on redundancy,” she tells him, and it means something different now. “Hera could have led everyone, or the next child, or the next. What’s another ten or twenty years to someone who sees millenia?”
Leoben reaches up to push her hair out of her eyes and Kara catches his palm against her cheek. The evening air is cool on their bare skin and his hand is warm. “I told you,” she whispers. “I don’t believe in destiny. I made a choice.”
He nods, sliding his other arm around her and pulling her back down to him, kissing her. But then he releases her lips, meets her eyes. “Why didn’t I know?” he asks softly. “I was lost...I thought I’d done it all wrong.”
Kara flinches at the lingering rawness of his pain. “You knew enough. If it wasn’t for you, I’d have spent my whole life running from the mandala.” She shrugs. “Until I decided, there was nothing you could have seen.”
Leoben nods, accepting her words even if they leave him feeling less certain than he ever has. “You came back to me,” he sighs, and it’s enough for now.
She opens her mouth, then stops. “But different.” Kara lays her hands flat on his chest. “He told me what I’d have to do, that it wouldn’t be easy, that there would still be conflict and hate and everything else that humans bring. He told me that I could stay there if I wanted to. But you love me. And I love you.” She looks down at Leoben, grass in his hair, and can’t ever remember being this happy. “It was what made Earth a possibility, and I couldn’t walk away from that.” She splays her fingers. “So they remade me, from the atoms of the universe. Unbroken.”
Leoben takes her hands reverently, kisses each knuckle. “Oh, Kara,” he whispers, and he smiles through his tears. They hold each other for a long time. Around them the sounds of the night are rising, animals and insects and the faintest chords of a song.
“Do you know what comes next?” Leoben asks after a while. “I can’t see anything clearly.”
Kara smiles, her face bright in the moonlight. “I think now we live. And try not to frak-up so badly we need divine intervention.”
He laughs, kisses her as joy swells through him, as the minor themes resolve and the music reaches a crescendo. Kara responds, kissing him harder until Leoben rolls them over, his body pressing her into the grass, into the fertile ground of their new world. Over his shoulder she can see the stars coming out, familiar patterns shining down on them. The night is cloudless, free of storms.
The End
So many thanks to those of you who've stuck with this story all the way through! Your enthusiasm has been so gratifying :) If you haven't let me know what you think, please do!