Tools of God, for nicole_anell
Title: Tools of God
author: trovia
Summary: Everybody is a tool to Six.
Characters: Head!Six, Baltar, Athena, Gina
Pairings: the canon pairings are implied
Rating: teen
Warnings: talk of rape
Title, Author and URL of original story: Eighteen Hours Later by nicole_anell
Beta Thanks: Thank you very much, lls_mutant! :)
Author Note: Set after “Resurrection Ship”.
Tools of God
It’s only been eighteen hours since the Pegasus Cylon shot Cain, eighteen hours since Valerii was assaulted... and Six just can’t make herself appear to Gaius. Instead she remains in the shadows, quiet but tense, her eyes on Valerii from the moment Gaius enters the brig.
“I’m here to make sure you are alright, Sharon,” Gaius says with that gentle voice he’s been using ever since Gina, all his motions still jerky and awkward and soft, “To make sure there is no lasting damage.”
Six glares at Valerii. The Cylon woman is a tool, as they are all tools of God and His plan, although Valerii, contrary to Gaius had a choice. There are always Cylons falling in love with humans and humans falling in love with Cylons, foolishly thinking they were different from each other when they aren’t. Still, Valerii made a choice, she was the first to make it in this Circle, and only that gave her a part to play. Valerii is the warrior and the mother, carrying the child who will complete the Circle, who has always completed the Circle. She is the warrior. She is strong. The first woman to make this choice has to be strong.
Yet eighteen hours before, Valerii has learned what it means to be alive, and she is shaken. She is looking fragile even, hesitating for a second before she nods and gets up, making another choice- a foolish one- to trust Gaius today. It’s always foolish to trust Gaius, Six could tell her that.
“Now, the guard tells me you have been working out,” Gaius says, standing too close to Valerii and when Valerii doesn’t bristle, Six does in her stead. “We won’t be doing any of those exercises until that rib heals up, hm? Can’t just turn the pain off.”
He’s playing scientist again, asking unimportant questions. Six sneers, agitated. If the two of them would be able to see her right now, she would laughed at them. Would laugh at Valerii looking Gaius over carefully, knowing he is fishing for knowledge.
“No. I can’t.”
Answering because she doesn’t have to answer. Choosing to trust. Stupid girl.
Six wraps her arms around herself, fighting off anger and pain. She shouldn’t be feeling like that, she should be impartial like always, ready to prod and tease and mock Gaius to keep him off balance, make him a tool of her amusement while preparing him to be a tool of God. Gaius, unlike Valerii, is nobody. He was chosen by accident. Six could as well have closed her eyes and pointed. She only picked him because he is a wimp and an egoist, and she should be playing with him as always. She shouldn’t feel so damn relieved, she shouldn’t be feeling so ridiculously grateful, she shouldn’t feel angry about feeling like that.
Eighteen hours ago, Six asked him- no, begged- Will you help her, Gaius? and he said yes. And Six was painfully reminded of what it is like to be helpless. To be human. She had almost forgotten... She has never quite known.
Valerii is not supposed to be weak and Gaius is not supposed to be strong. And Six is not supposed to feel hurt when they are.
--
Six isn’t human. She isn’t a Cylon. She isn’t even, strictly speaking, a she. She is nothing like them, a vessel of God’s power and will, future and past coming together within her while she lurks in the shadows, guiding God’s pawns.
Strictly speaking, this isn’t her body. She doesn’t, in actuality, have a body. If there was no Model Six, if Gaius had been approached by any other model but a Six on Caprica, she would not be looking like she does. She doesn’t even have a name, has never needed one. And never is a long time for her indeed.
Yet when she saw that woman lying in the Pegasus’ brig, catatonic from torture and wearing her face, her pain had shot right through Six, too, making her tremble, making her cry. She should not feel anything for God’s tools yet that was almost her lying there, it was almost her who tentatively reached out for a slice of food... and it was her who trusted Gaius to help. Gaius had asked her not to be in the brig when that happened but Six had been watching, guarding him anyway, of course. He should be the one to need her help. Not the other way around.
--
It’s Gaius’ destiny to destroy almost all of humankind, as it has almost been destroyed again and again longer than Six can recall. Basically, it’s his destiny to be an idiot and a wimp. Six knows this. Knowing this makes it easier to keep him on his toes, jostling him around to keep him ready for use. He’s her evening entertainment. She can sneer at him and point, and distract him with mockery and sex, that’s what he’s for.
Though even if he wanted to, Gaius couldn’t hurt a thing. It’s part of the irony she cherishes. When a fly would find it’s way into his old lab on Caprica, Gaius would catch it with a curved paper and let it safely out of the door. Gaius is good with beings more helpless than him.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Gaius is asking, abrupt but candid.
Valerii tries for nonchalance. “Can’t think of anything.” She fails. She’s still adjusting to being not as strong as she thought.
Don’t trust him, Six wants to hiss at her. Don’t trust him, you stupid little thing. Can’t you feel that it’s his destiny to steal your child? Don’t you know that we chose him just because he’d be able to live on after selling you all out?
Eighteen hours ago, Valerii has learned what it means to truly run out of control. Eighteen hours ago, Six has learned the same. Yet here Valerii is, trusting Gaius to keep her save. Trusting him because she thinks that he can’t hurt her when Six could tell her that everybody can hurt you, and Gaius would do so in a heartbeat if he thought he had to.
“May I, Sharon?” Gaius is asking and Valerii is letting him, she is actually letting him touch her stomach to feel for the baby growing inside. They look obscenely intimate standing so close, and Six, who likes standing close to people except today, wants to scream at them.
Will you help her, Gaius?
I will do everything I can. After all, she is remarkably similar to someone I care about a great deal.
Gaius didn’t mean Six, of course, although he doesn’t know that yet. He meant the other one, the real Six who was there before her, the one who calls herself Caprica now. He still thinks they are the same but they aren’t, of course. They shouldn’t even be alike.
Six doesn’t want to feel human. Six doesn’t want to feel. If she was one of them, it might have been her lying there in the Pegasus brig, it might have been her who was almost assaulted and raped by human men.
Six doesn’t want to trust. She doesn’t want to trust Gaius. She knows it’s all a farce after all, knows exactly how stupid an idea it is to trust this man, a man she is reshaping herself. Yet she has. Yet she does. Trusting him to help the other Six, her other self. Trusting him to make the both of them stop hurting.
And right now, just for today, she hates Valerii for making that same stupid mistake.
--
Gaius is about to leave the brig when he pauses.
“What do you think,” he says, straightening up in that awkward way he has before turning around to Valerii. “What is the darkest sin, what do you think?”
Gaius knows a lot about sins, of course. And Six is teaching him more every day. He still thinks there was such a thing as responsibility, such a thing as choice for him when God has taken both away from him long since.
Valerii looks him over as if she wants to say “betrayal” just to see his reaction.
Six hopes she will.
“Cruelty for its own sake,” Valerii says. Six presses her lips together.
She wants to appear to them both and tell them to stop being stupid, stop being so damn human. But she doesn’t, of course. She can’t do that. She is powerless herself. She just knows not to think of that fact on most days.
They make for a strange couple, Gaius and Valerii. The man who doesn’t want to hurt a fly but still he brought death to them all. The woman who wants to hurt them all back and instead she creates life.
Don’t let him take it, Six wants to tell Valerii. Don’t let him take your child. He’ll try to steal it away. I’ll tell him to steal it away. Don’t let us destroy your life.
Though she knows that isn’t how it’s going to work. All this has happened before, after all. And slight variations aside, it will all happen again.
--
Six fades away quietly, leaving the two of them to themselves for a while. Gaius hasn’t even noticed that she’s gone, she knows. She has taught him to be always on his toes, to always suspect she is there. She rarely ever actually leaves. She has nowhere else to be, after all. And when she does, she never stays away from him for long.
Though she needs to be away from the Pegasus Six who wears her face.
And after that, she will be back to tease and prod and mock Gaius, preparing him for the horrible and great things he will soon have to do. Nothing will remind him of her tears when she faced Gina. He will never know of her anger for Valerii. He will, however, still remember that Six trusted him and that she relied on him but his mistake will be to assume there is significance to that. He will be wrong about that, Six will make sure of it. Gina might have made Six weak, but that very weakness will make Gaius trust her. And trusting Six is a much worse idea than trusting Gaius.
author: trovia
Summary: Everybody is a tool to Six.
Characters: Head!Six, Baltar, Athena, Gina
Pairings: the canon pairings are implied
Rating: teen
Warnings: talk of rape
Title, Author and URL of original story: Eighteen Hours Later by nicole_anell
Beta Thanks: Thank you very much, lls_mutant! :)
Author Note: Set after “Resurrection Ship”.
Tools of God
It’s only been eighteen hours since the Pegasus Cylon shot Cain, eighteen hours since Valerii was assaulted... and Six just can’t make herself appear to Gaius. Instead she remains in the shadows, quiet but tense, her eyes on Valerii from the moment Gaius enters the brig.
“I’m here to make sure you are alright, Sharon,” Gaius says with that gentle voice he’s been using ever since Gina, all his motions still jerky and awkward and soft, “To make sure there is no lasting damage.”
Six glares at Valerii. The Cylon woman is a tool, as they are all tools of God and His plan, although Valerii, contrary to Gaius had a choice. There are always Cylons falling in love with humans and humans falling in love with Cylons, foolishly thinking they were different from each other when they aren’t. Still, Valerii made a choice, she was the first to make it in this Circle, and only that gave her a part to play. Valerii is the warrior and the mother, carrying the child who will complete the Circle, who has always completed the Circle. She is the warrior. She is strong. The first woman to make this choice has to be strong.
Yet eighteen hours before, Valerii has learned what it means to be alive, and she is shaken. She is looking fragile even, hesitating for a second before she nods and gets up, making another choice- a foolish one- to trust Gaius today. It’s always foolish to trust Gaius, Six could tell her that.
“Now, the guard tells me you have been working out,” Gaius says, standing too close to Valerii and when Valerii doesn’t bristle, Six does in her stead. “We won’t be doing any of those exercises until that rib heals up, hm? Can’t just turn the pain off.”
He’s playing scientist again, asking unimportant questions. Six sneers, agitated. If the two of them would be able to see her right now, she would laughed at them. Would laugh at Valerii looking Gaius over carefully, knowing he is fishing for knowledge.
“No. I can’t.”
Answering because she doesn’t have to answer. Choosing to trust. Stupid girl.
Six wraps her arms around herself, fighting off anger and pain. She shouldn’t be feeling like that, she should be impartial like always, ready to prod and tease and mock Gaius to keep him off balance, make him a tool of her amusement while preparing him to be a tool of God. Gaius, unlike Valerii, is nobody. He was chosen by accident. Six could as well have closed her eyes and pointed. She only picked him because he is a wimp and an egoist, and she should be playing with him as always. She shouldn’t feel so damn relieved, she shouldn’t be feeling so ridiculously grateful, she shouldn’t feel angry about feeling like that.
Eighteen hours ago, Six asked him- no, begged- Will you help her, Gaius? and he said yes. And Six was painfully reminded of what it is like to be helpless. To be human. She had almost forgotten... She has never quite known.
Valerii is not supposed to be weak and Gaius is not supposed to be strong. And Six is not supposed to feel hurt when they are.
--
Six isn’t human. She isn’t a Cylon. She isn’t even, strictly speaking, a she. She is nothing like them, a vessel of God’s power and will, future and past coming together within her while she lurks in the shadows, guiding God’s pawns.
Strictly speaking, this isn’t her body. She doesn’t, in actuality, have a body. If there was no Model Six, if Gaius had been approached by any other model but a Six on Caprica, she would not be looking like she does. She doesn’t even have a name, has never needed one. And never is a long time for her indeed.
Yet when she saw that woman lying in the Pegasus’ brig, catatonic from torture and wearing her face, her pain had shot right through Six, too, making her tremble, making her cry. She should not feel anything for God’s tools yet that was almost her lying there, it was almost her who tentatively reached out for a slice of food... and it was her who trusted Gaius to help. Gaius had asked her not to be in the brig when that happened but Six had been watching, guarding him anyway, of course. He should be the one to need her help. Not the other way around.
--
It’s Gaius’ destiny to destroy almost all of humankind, as it has almost been destroyed again and again longer than Six can recall. Basically, it’s his destiny to be an idiot and a wimp. Six knows this. Knowing this makes it easier to keep him on his toes, jostling him around to keep him ready for use. He’s her evening entertainment. She can sneer at him and point, and distract him with mockery and sex, that’s what he’s for.
Though even if he wanted to, Gaius couldn’t hurt a thing. It’s part of the irony she cherishes. When a fly would find it’s way into his old lab on Caprica, Gaius would catch it with a curved paper and let it safely out of the door. Gaius is good with beings more helpless than him.
“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Gaius is asking, abrupt but candid.
Valerii tries for nonchalance. “Can’t think of anything.” She fails. She’s still adjusting to being not as strong as she thought.
Don’t trust him, Six wants to hiss at her. Don’t trust him, you stupid little thing. Can’t you feel that it’s his destiny to steal your child? Don’t you know that we chose him just because he’d be able to live on after selling you all out?
Eighteen hours ago, Valerii has learned what it means to truly run out of control. Eighteen hours ago, Six has learned the same. Yet here Valerii is, trusting Gaius to keep her save. Trusting him because she thinks that he can’t hurt her when Six could tell her that everybody can hurt you, and Gaius would do so in a heartbeat if he thought he had to.
“May I, Sharon?” Gaius is asking and Valerii is letting him, she is actually letting him touch her stomach to feel for the baby growing inside. They look obscenely intimate standing so close, and Six, who likes standing close to people except today, wants to scream at them.
Will you help her, Gaius?
I will do everything I can. After all, she is remarkably similar to someone I care about a great deal.
Gaius didn’t mean Six, of course, although he doesn’t know that yet. He meant the other one, the real Six who was there before her, the one who calls herself Caprica now. He still thinks they are the same but they aren’t, of course. They shouldn’t even be alike.
Six doesn’t want to feel human. Six doesn’t want to feel. If she was one of them, it might have been her lying there in the Pegasus brig, it might have been her who was almost assaulted and raped by human men.
Six doesn’t want to trust. She doesn’t want to trust Gaius. She knows it’s all a farce after all, knows exactly how stupid an idea it is to trust this man, a man she is reshaping herself. Yet she has. Yet she does. Trusting him to help the other Six, her other self. Trusting him to make the both of them stop hurting.
And right now, just for today, she hates Valerii for making that same stupid mistake.
--
Gaius is about to leave the brig when he pauses.
“What do you think,” he says, straightening up in that awkward way he has before turning around to Valerii. “What is the darkest sin, what do you think?”
Gaius knows a lot about sins, of course. And Six is teaching him more every day. He still thinks there was such a thing as responsibility, such a thing as choice for him when God has taken both away from him long since.
Valerii looks him over as if she wants to say “betrayal” just to see his reaction.
Six hopes she will.
“Cruelty for its own sake,” Valerii says. Six presses her lips together.
She wants to appear to them both and tell them to stop being stupid, stop being so damn human. But she doesn’t, of course. She can’t do that. She is powerless herself. She just knows not to think of that fact on most days.
They make for a strange couple, Gaius and Valerii. The man who doesn’t want to hurt a fly but still he brought death to them all. The woman who wants to hurt them all back and instead she creates life.
Don’t let him take it, Six wants to tell Valerii. Don’t let him take your child. He’ll try to steal it away. I’ll tell him to steal it away. Don’t let us destroy your life.
Though she knows that isn’t how it’s going to work. All this has happened before, after all. And slight variations aside, it will all happen again.
--
Six fades away quietly, leaving the two of them to themselves for a while. Gaius hasn’t even noticed that she’s gone, she knows. She has taught him to be always on his toes, to always suspect she is there. She rarely ever actually leaves. She has nowhere else to be, after all. And when she does, she never stays away from him for long.
Though she needs to be away from the Pegasus Six who wears her face.
And after that, she will be back to tease and prod and mock Gaius, preparing him for the horrible and great things he will soon have to do. Nothing will remind him of her tears when she faced Gina. He will never know of her anger for Valerii. He will, however, still remember that Six trusted him and that she relied on him but his mistake will be to assume there is significance to that. He will be wrong about that, Six will make sure of it. Gina might have made Six weak, but that very weakness will make Gaius trust her. And trusting Six is a much worse idea than trusting Gaius.