Hiding in plain view. ((open to anyone!))

[chiron_survivor]

She didn't flee to the Nexus immediately. At first, she was just in shock. The cylons were back, except this time, they were running the government. A "coalition" government, but everyone knew what that really meant.

It didn't make sense to her. They hated humans. Why not just destroy them and be done with it?

Her boyfriend assumed it was some sort of elaborate revenge plot, or a way to salvage the aspects of humanity the cylons considered worth keeping. He wanted her to agree with him, to be red-hot about it, too, but Adia was too distracted. She kept seeing Caspar's face -- the one she thought she knew -- and comparing it with the ones she kept seeing, wherever she went.

She could tell it was bothering him, that her attention was elsewhere.

Later, in the middle of the night when she knew she wouldn't be missed by any humans, and prayed she wouldn't be missed by any cylons, she PINpointed to the Nexus.

She sat at a Nexus terminal and typed out a message for anyone to read.

The cylons are on New Caprica.

Only then did she cry.

Comments

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

April was closing her store when her PINpoint beeped. Glancing at the message from Adia, she didn't quite understand. But she did get a wave of emotion from the text, and knew her friend was upset.

Using the message, she PINpointed to where Adia sat. Seeing her in tears, April quickly came up and pulled her into a hug.

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia is surprised to see April. Maybe she erroneously assumed that it was the middle of the night everywhere, or that she wasn't worth anyone's immediate worry.

She doesn't return the hug so much as sag into it. It's obvious that she is still upset, and scared, but she's also relieved that it's April who found her first. "It's... they showed up a few days ago," she whispers tearfully. "I just couldn't stay any longer. I couldn't take it."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

The middle of the night doesn't bother April. Vampires prefer the night after all.

"It's okay. You are safe here." April reassures her friend.

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"I know," she whispers, but it's good to hear. She still has her PINpoint clutched in her fist. "They aren't attacking, but they are so many of them. They're everywhere. It's like a nightmare."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"I don't know much about them. What can they do?"

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Slowly, she pulls her thoughts together. "The ones that look like humans... I don't know. They aren't really different from us, physically. But they have an army of Centurions. They have guns. And the human-looking ones control them."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

The situation sounds a little familiar to April with what she and Clark are facing with the Kandorians. But she takes Adia's hand, and comforts her again.

"Are you scared of going home? Because we always have a place for a friend to stay."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

She's tempted. It would be so easy to go back with April. Kansas was such a lovely place. Adia could even help out on the farm to earn her keep. At that one moment, she couldn't think of any reason to go back.

And then images of her friends, people who had become her second family, flooded her mind, and she felt guilty for thinking of abandoning them. "I am scared," she exhales. She sits back and rubs her face. "If things get worse, I might take you up on that, but... people will miss me if I'm gone too long. I can't leave my friends."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"Friends are important." A slight pause. "Is there anyway I can help?"

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"I wish I knew how you could." She bites her lip, pensive. April is a superhero, after all. But even if April could somehow take out all the cylons, she isn't sure how that would truly solve anything. There would just be more. "I thought for sure they would kill us. But they want to form a provisional government, instead. I don't know to what end. Or why. It's like a warped reality."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"I could attempt to get a glimpse of their intentions. Their plans." April is also a psychic after all.

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia blinks. "You... you could, couldn't you?" The question is, what would Adia be able to do with that information? If the cylons really were staging some elaborate revenge scenario, what could she do to stop it?

She rubs at her eyes. She'll worry about that later. "Okay. You can try that. It won't hurt you or anything, will it?"

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"No. My voices never hurt me." April closes her eyes and concentrates. Using Adia's emotional state and her feelings on the cylons to tune her voices to the situation. She pushes hard, looking for any insights that her powers will allow.

((your call if she sees anything, and if so what))

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

But her powers do sometimes give her trouble, Adia thinks, but April seems in control of things, so she sits quietly and waits.

Trying to understand a cylon's motivation is a tricky thing. They aren't quite a collective consciousness, but each model is very similar in how it thinks, and all those thoughts are pooled together every so often, like rivers running into the ocean. It can be overwhelming at times.

Some of the intentions are noble. Forgiving. Some are impartial. Some are downright nefarious. There is just as much hate as love. But no plans for extermination. Not yet, anyway.

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

Their voices are all the sam,e it will be difficult for April to determine which voices belongs to which cylon. Even if Adia asks. And she won't push too hard... knowing the balance of using her powers now better than in the past.

"I sense that some are noble. They have forgiven."

"Some are impartial."

"And some are not to be trusted. But I do not sense any plans for extermination."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia's anxious look eases a little when April finally speaks again. "Well. That's something." She shifts in her seat uncomfortably. "I think I can guess which ones are trying to forgive. One of the Sixes -- the sixth model -- is in my lab now. All she talks about is God." Clearly, that doesn't make her feel any better.

"The one that died. The one I was close to. I think he's still out there." She looks down at her hands. "I hope he's one of the noble ones."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"I lost Clark a few times. But I always tried to get back to him. And him back to me."

"Perhaps yours will be a noble one because of his memories with you. He would still have those?"

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but..." Clark and April are meant to be together, in Adia's mind, but she doesn't know how to say that without sounding silly. "...I don't think we had what you and Clark have."

She frowns a little, considering. "I think so. Their is a different cylon who was also a sleeper agent, and she still has all her memories of the time she thought she was human."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"It took time to develop what Clark and I have. Maybe you have something to start with. You are a beautiful woman Adia."

"And if he cherished your memory, maybe he is still out there. Working to protect you."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"Do you think?" Adia asks hopefully, before sighing and rubbing her eyes. What is she thinking?! To even consider the possibility of finding Caspar and rekindling what they had... "I have a boyfriend," she says, rather firmly, "And Caspar is a cylon. That ship has sailed." More quietly, she adds, "Maybe he hasn't forgotten what it was like to be human, but he was a cylon before and he's a cylon now. He's going to side with his brothers and the other models."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"Clark is a Kryptonian. There are other Kryptonians emerging in our dimension. But his human experience... made him different."

"Do you not think that Caspar won't remember what it was like to be human?"

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

"But Clark isn't..." she sighs and starts over. She hates disagreeing, but she really wants April to understand. "Krypton wasn't at war with humans, were they? Humanity didn't create and then enslave Clark's people. I mean, maybe a Kryptonian wouldn't normally care at all about humans, but there isn't a history of hate there."

She looks away, unsure. "He might remember, but it's not the same as being. As soon as he realized he was a cylon, back on our ship, he didn't act like himself." She swallows. "I thought he was just scared at first, but now I don't know."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"There are Kryptonians on Earth that want to take over. To start a war."

"But I see your point. There is a history. And maybe all cylons can't be trusted. I just know what I saw... some do want to be forgiven."

[chiron-survivor.livejournal.com]

Adia relaxes a little. "Sorry. I know you're trying to help. When Clark told me about Zod and the others, I saw the parallels between his situation and mine." She fights back a wave of self-pity. "It's just so hard seeing his face again. There are lots of copies of his model, but they all just look through me. And if he's out there somewhere, he hasn't tried to contact me or give me a sign." She sighs. "I just... I thought I had moved past it. Past him."

[slayers-desire.livejournal.com]

"No wonder this is so hard, when you see him everywhere, it is not letting you move on."

"I wish I could detect him for you. But their voices are so similar..."