nexus_crossings | A reminder to not count your Earths before they've hatched.

A reminder to not count your Earths before they've hatched.

It is not unusual to find Adia in the Plaza. She is there frequently enough, sitting in front of a Nexus terminal or fixing herself a cup of coffee. It is not even unusual to find her accompanied by pokémon. This time it's only one, a large bird that stands nearly as tall as she does. It stays close to her seat, keeping a watchful eye for suspicious characters.

What is unusual is the expression on her face.

Adia has come to the Nexus upset before, but this is different. All her nervous energy is gone, replaced with a washed-out, nearly lethargic appearance. She's holding a children's drawing in her hands, staring at it for long seconds before folding it along well-worn creases. She picks at a corner, staring into the distance, then unfolds it and starts the process all over again.

This goes on for several minutes until Bucky, wise bird that he is, gently nudges her with his beak. Coming back to herself, she blinks and looks around, remembering where she is.

"Something... something bad happened back home. A lot of people are... really upset. And losing hope. How do you come back from that?" She looks down at the picture and whispers, "How do you learn to hope again?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm so sorry." Ghost's voice is quiet with shock, the little machine looking down despondently as the weight of her news sinks in. "You've come so far already... just to find the same thing waiting for you."

Behind him Blaze has stopped dead at the news, her eyes widening in shock. Her face doesn't adequately convey the emotions within: what it feels like to hear another iteration of the world you're built and charged to defend is already gone. But the clench of her fists and the sparks that crawl over them says more than her metal face can. It's only when Adia gives voice to her despair that the Titan abruptly moves again, stepping forward and sinking to one knee before her. Ghost backs up a little, looking between them.

"Do you really think that?" Her voice is strangely calm, but she's very intent on Adia. She rests a plated arm on her knee, eye-level with the other woman. "Sounded to me like you know a lot of good people in your Fleet. You're not sure they're worth saving?

"All of this has happened before and will happen again," she murmurs in reply. Not really for Ghost, although he might remember her saying that once before. "The Sacred Scrolls weren't lying..."

Her gaze has already drifted to the drawing in her hands by the time Blaze drops to one knee before her. She looks up sharply, then pales even more at the Titan's probing question. "No, I --" she swallows, horrified by the interpretation of her words. "Of course they're worth saving. But who's going to save them? President Roslin hasn't made an announcement since she returned from Earth. I don't know what Commander Adama is doing... everyone is so lost, Blaze. Maggie... I found her sobbing in her quarters yesterday. She never cries." She rubs a hand over her face tiredly. "Even the Cylons are upset..."

Oh. That's right, she hasn't seen Blaze since before Steve returned. How could so much good and bad news happen in such a short period of time. "The Cylons are having a civil war. One was keeping information about another five models from the rest of them. The Twos, Sixes, and Eights rebelled and joined the Fleet." She glances again at the drawing in her hands. "But not the Fives."

Blaze nods with approval at Adia's first reply. Good. That's what she thought. The rest is where it gets complicated- especially with the news about the Cylons adding a whole new element to the mix. Even Ghost manages to look surprised.

"Not the ones you were hoping for. Evens the odds a bit, though." Blaze frowns nonetheless. After everything Adia and her people went through last time, even an Exo who's inclined to take people at face value has to ask, "You reckon they're serious about joining forces this time?"

To be honest, it's no surprise that the Fives as a whole sided with One. Their disdain for humans was obvious. But couldn't Caspar have been the exception? "There's always been an Eight in our Fleet," she tells Blaze. "She turned her back on the rest of the Cylons because she fell in love with a human. But... I don't know, maybe her model was more sympathetic to humans in general. All her sisters are on board Galactica now... well, except for the one who shot Commander Adama..."

A complicated race, these Cylons. Blaze has good reason to be concerned. But there is little doubt on Adia's face when she responds. "As a measure of good faith, they destroyed their resurrection hub. All the Cylons are mortal now. Same as us."

That should be a good thing, right? Something to level the playing field. But she looks pained about it. No more second chances for anybody. Especially foolish ex-boyfriends.

Edited 2017-08-23 00:53 (UTC)

"All of them? Even the enemy Cylons?" Ghost asks in shock. "Can the hub be rebuilt?"

"Finally." Blaze doesn't sound like she's taking its destruction lightly, either, but maybe that's why there's a kind of approval in her voice. "Now that's a real peace offering. Shame to lose the ability, but sometimes a thing just needs to be done." In the Titan's eyes, the rebel Cylons learning something about real sacrifice - self-sacrifice - is a sorely-needed first step. Showing the empathy needed to earn trust, instead of simply demanding it.

"Even the enemy Cylons," she confirms, looking up at Ghost. "And no, I don't think so..."

His question dovetails rather nicely into why the rebel Cylons made a peace offering in the first place, and how it might not have as much to do with empathy as Blaze imagines. "They did it so we could find the missing models... the Final Five, they called them. Four of them were in our Fleet." She frowns, but loses some of that lost, helpless look. "They were the ones responsible for the biological models, the resurrection hub... none of the Cylons knew how they even came to exist. Except for the Ones."

She shakes her head, thinking of how much of the Cylons' hatred for humans might stem from the Ones and their manipulation of the other models' memories. "The Ones tried to take away the free will of the Centurions, too. That was the tipping point for the rebel Cylons. So far, they're behaving. Commander Adama invited them to travel with us... although where we're gonna go now, I have no clue..."

"Enslaving and wiping their own people..." There's horror in Ghost's voice as he turns to look at Blaze. He knows what kind of chord that strikes for an Exo. Why Blaze is so very quiet despite the way her eyes have widened. "I know many of the other Cylons must have done appalling things themselves, but..."

"Yeah," she says shortly. She keeps her eyes on Adia. "But that isn't the first problem here. Adia. Listen to me. Right now your people just got sucker-punched when you thought you were finally home and dry. Of course that's gonna knock the wind out out of you. But you need to pick yourselves up and keep moving because you're not out of the fight yet. Understood?"

She waits for the briefest shred of acknowledgment from Adia before she goes on, "Now, I don't know where you're going to go. Don't think either of us has the intel we need to make that call. Right now you need to stay on your feet, look to your comrades and trust your leaders are going to do their part. You might be able to do more than that, but first you hold the line."

The reaction from her friends is not surprising. Adia felt similar horror, too, when she first heard the list of crimes that the Ones committed, both to their own people and her fellow humans. "It doesn't let the rest of them off the hook, but... I had hoped that none of the other models would have stood with the Ones, once they learned the truth."

If Caspar was looking for an opportunity to defect, wouldn't a civil war be the perfect excuse? Was he that attached to his brothers? Did he hate humanity that much? Maybe she wasn't enough of an exception for him to change his mind.

Or maybe Maggie was right, and he really was a coward.

Blaze's insistence for her attention brings her back to the present. She's right, of course. Dwelling on Cylon politics is not going to get her anywhere. She nods, showing that she's listening, and takes in the advice that her friend has to offer.

"Hold the line," she repeats. She thinks about it a moment, and a bit of color returns to her face. "I can do that." She can try, anyway. "I don't want us to lose what we've managed to hold onto this entire time."

I don't understand either, but it must have been a very difficult situation. Maybe not everyone who wanted to defect was able to get away. Or maybe they were more afraid of the humans than of what else the Ones might do...

" Ghost's trying to be reassuring. It's not hard to guess what Adia's greatest hope was, and he wishes her luck had been kinder to her this time. After all she's been through, surely she's owed a break.

But then, as Blaze knows, war's more likely to give you another hammering in place of a reprieve. That's why she nods approval of Adia's quiet resolve. "Good. Keep that thought close. Your fleet's already rescued a whole colony from a hostage situation and found a world nearly everyone thought was a myth - and you've stayed a step ahead of an enemy ten times your size all the way. After everything they've thrown at you, here you are, bloodied and still standing."

There's something fierce in the chuckle she gives. "Besides, a good part of their army just defected to your side and took out their greatest strategic advantage along the way. Sounds like the odds favor you more than ever."

"Maybe," she murmurs, her gaze flickering to the drawing in her hands. Ghost has an excellent vantage point to the smiling stick figure couple and the number five drawn over and over in the blank space. "Ghost..." She smiles at him tiredly. "It's okay. You don't have to make excuses for him."

There is hope, and then there is fantasy. As much as she wants to find comfort in Ghost's gentle reassurance, Blaze's fierce confidence is what she needs right now. What her people need. "I wish I could pass that message along with as much gusto as you," she tells her friend. "Or at least be able to tell someone in a position to come up with a plan."

"I'm sorry," Ghost says quietly. His gaze drops to the picture in her hands. "Um..." It's not always wise to keep hoping, but then it's not that long since he spent centuries waiting for someone he wasn't sure he'd find. His instincts are very different to Blaze's. And it's not as if Adia has centuries to spare.

He wonders about that picture, though- it's surely not her work, but considering what he thinks it means, his curiosity is at odds with his sense of tact.

"Sometimes if you can keep it together, that makes it easier for the people around you to do the same," Blaze says. This is old knowledge; it carries the faint echo of snapped orders, a remembered whiff of sweat and fear. But the faces it calls to mind are recent: Jesse's firm but kindly words to a lost Venusian girl and Hughes' cool-headed reassurance and even maybe Harrowheart, that time during the body-swap. Old lesson, new examples.

"Your leaders probably have people to tell them the same," she adds. "Here's hoping, anyway. No-one likes hunkering down and waiting for orders, but you look to the people beside you first. If you get people back on their feet and there's still no word, then maybe it's time to see what you can do."

She almost folds the picture up. Almost. It's not that she thinks it rude of Ghost to look at it or silently question its meaning, but she's not quite ready to talk about it, embarrassed at how she hoped to be reunited with Caspar at all.

There's also a part of her that thinks that she didn't hope hard enough, and that's why Hera's drawing and the vision from a kindly seer didn't come true, and that's even more embarrassing.

"That's why I came here," she admits. "I'm trying to stay strong for others, but it's been hard." She puts a hand on Blaze's, looking into her optics. It's amazing how much she can empathize with her and Ghost, and that alone is support enough, but her friend's words seem to buoy her a little more. "If our government can't come up with a decent plan, I'm going to tell them about the Nexus. I don't know if that will do more harm than good, but I don't know how much longer we can go on without another goal."

Then, finally, she turns her attention to Ghost, and shows him the picture. "This was drawn by a little girl in our Fleet. She's half-human, half-Cylon. The only one of her kind. I babysat her once while her father was stopping someone dangerous... I told her a story about the Nexus, but no one ever told her about Caspar, so far as I know."

One of the stick figures looks remarkably like Adia. The other has short brown hair and is wearing a purple suit. They are standing under a bright yellow sun, a green line below their feet signifying grass. "I thought... I hadn't dared to hope, but..."

"Maybe it's time." Blaze turns her hand to grip Adia's gently. "Guess it would be pretty awkward if we got involved, but if we can do anything to help, we've got your back. Hell, there are human Guardians we could send your way if it comes to it."

She turns her attention to the picture (up to now noticed, but disregarded) when Adia does, but while she's still frowning in surprise at it Ghost looks up at Adia, down at the paper, and asks, "That's, um... sort of spooky. Is having visions a Cylon... ability?"

For now, leave aside the many questions around a human-Cylon hybrid (which might quickly get embarrassing anyway). It's easy for Ghost to understand what effect that glimmer of a promise - and this dousing disappointment - has for their friend. That's what matters most immediately, to both bots.

Looking down at their joined hands, she smiles wryly. "Considering how many Cylons are on board Galactica now, Commander Adama wouldn't have any room to balk at receiving help from you two. Thank you, Blaze. I appreciate it."

Her gaze drifts back to the picture briefly. "I don't know," she admits. "She's not even three years old... I mean, it's possible she overheard someone talk about him, but..."

But why would Hera draw them together? Under a yellow sun, standing on green grass? She had only known Caspar on her ship, and New Caprica's ground was always a dusty, muddy brown.

"There's, um... something else. I attended the party of a Nexus friend. His cousin is a seer, and he had a vision of Caspar and me in the Nexus." She sighs. "And then I got this drawing. It was hard not to... to at least, hope, a little bit, that I'd see him again and we'd somehow work things out."

Blaze keeps her hand wrapped over Adia's as she asks, a little awkwardly, "You, uh. Don't know if she's connected to the other Cylons? Subconsciously, maybe? Seems like that would've become pretty dangerous before now but it'd help explain things."

"That wouldn't explain the seer's vision," Ghost reminds her. Neither is going to question the validity of such visions. It's honestly one of the more familiar abilities they've heard about via the Nexus.

"Hnnh." Blaze sounds deeply dissatisfied. "Visions. They give you enough to set you speculating, never enough to tell you what you need to do to reach them. Maybe they're not untrue, but they're damned unhelpful."

"I don't know," she admits. "No one knows what a human-Cylon hybrid is capable of. But the Cylons aren't connected to one another, either. Not unless they consciously share their memories. Or die and resurrect..."

She pauses before adding slowly, "During the escape from New Caprica, Hera was kidnapped by the Cylons and lived with them for about a month." Could she have met Caspar? But how would such a young child remember an encounter like that?

"He said that visions aren't always set in stone, but he seemed so sure of himself, talking about him as if he had already met him.... he said that he was happy, because he was with me..." She gives Blaze a sad nod of agreement. "That's why I tried to put it out of my mind. Too much has happened for me to believe that he'll simply reappear in my life."

"Could've run into him, maybe? If I was in his place, I'd want to check in on the kid. Make sure they were treating her okay."

"...That is not what you would do."

"No, but I'd start with that. From what Adia's said I get the feeling Caspar isn't an explosive wrath kind of guy." He was probably programmed for sabotage. Blaze figures he might be into that subtlety thing. "Assuming he even had that kind of opportunity, though."

She squeezes Adia's hand carefully. "Wish I had a good answer for you. All I know is memory's a strange thing, visions are worse and war is the strangest thing of all. He might turn up out of the blue, but until and unless that happens you've got other people counting on you. People you can actually do something for."

A faint smile appears on her face at Ghost's statement, although it is short-lived. No, Blaze would have no doubt handled things differently than Caspar. "He wasn't like that," she agrees softly. "But I can't imagine him checking on Hera, either."

In fact, the longer it's been since she's seen him last, the harder it is for her to imagine him doing anything except keep his head down and stay out of trouble.

She gives her friend's hand a squeeze back, appreciative of the reminder that she isn't alone. "Yeah. That's what I'm trying to do." She frowns guiltily. "I don't know if coming here was the best use of my time, but I needed the advice."

Ghost gives Adia a bit of a sidelong look, almost questioning. Is she sure about that? But he's learned from dealing with Blaze that there are times not to press such questions.

"You've answered your own question then, huh?" Blaze chuckles and rises to her feet. "You get to lean on other people too, Adia. Like I said, if you need us all you have to do is call."

Don't look at her like that, Ghost. She can't keep giving her ex-boyfriend the benefit of the doubt, not when he's missed his chance to do the right thing. His last chance, quite possibly, now that resurrection is no longer an option.

"I told her about you," she tells her little robot friend. "In my Nexus story. I was trying to think of all the nice people I've met who wouldn't be scary to a small child." Who likely weren't scary to her, either, at first meeting.

She smiles up at Blaze, a little better off than when she first found her. "I guess so... thanks, both of you. If, um... if a new plan materializes, I'll let you know."

"Really? Me?" Ghost seems taken aback, but very pleasantly so. Most Guardians hope to become legends one day, but how many people ever tell stories about their Ghosts?

"Sounds like a great idea to me. Kids love you." Well, Tina does. Blaze generally avoids getting to know children, for her own reasons.

"Well, I... hope she liked the story." The little bot looks bashful, still at a bit of a loss for words, but really, he's going to be warming himself with that thought for months at least. "Thanks, Adia. It was nice of you to think of me for that."

Blaze chuckles at him, then winks at Adia. He's cute when he's flattered. "Go with the Light, Adia. And good luck."

"She did," Adia confirms. "She was telling her father about it for weeks." The only time she ever shared the secret of the Nexus, and it was to comfort a scared, sick little girl.

It never ceases to amaze her how much emotion a small bot with one "eye" can possess, and how similar those emotions often are to her own. She smiles softly at him and reaches out to pat one of his shiny points. "Anytime, Ghost." If only the Cylons had his heart, and Blaze's compassion. If only humans hadn't been such cruel masters. How different things would truly be.

"You too, Blaze. Thank you."

Edited 2017-09-16 02:37 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A reminder to not count your Earths before they've hatched.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject