Four things that didn't surprise Sam about being a Cylon, and one that did, by lyras
Title: Four things that didn't surprise Sam about being a Cylon, and one that did
remix author: lyras
Summary: The title says it all.
Characters: Sam Anders
Pairings: Gen (background Kara/Sam)
Rating: PG
Beta thanks: Thanks to such_heights and themostepotente for looking this over.
Title, Author and URL of original story: Five Things That Didn’t Surprise Sam About Being A Cylon by beatrice_otter
Author Notes: beatrice_otter, I really enjoyed exploring your stories, so I hope you don’t mind what I’ve done to this one!
Irony
God liked to play dice, he'd heard. Sam decided that God also liked to play mean tricks on his people. Why else was the human resistance on New Caprica led by the Final Five Cylons? Why else was Tyrol's son revealed not to be his? Why did Kara Thrace survive attempted genocide, a nuclear showdown, several Viper wrecks, a universe of heartbreak, a lost father, and a lifetime of pain at the hands of her mother...just to disappear when her job was done? What about her life, Sam wondered.
Why else had he put his soul into fighting the Cylons, only to discover that he was one of them?
So the universe liked to make dark jokes. No surprises there.
Kara
Whether she was fleecing him at Triad, rescuing him from Caprica or driving him insane with whatever the frak it was she had going with Lee Adama, it didn't matter. She was like home, even if he didn't actually understand why until they plugged him into the old lady. But by then he couldn't tell her, anyway.
Perhaps it was for the best. Kara had been through enough, and there was no resurrecting Daniel now.
Alcohol
When the music finally resolved in his mind, when Kara was back, when the immediate crises were over, he retired to Joe's and stacked up the drinks. There were a lot of them, and they still weren't enough to make him forget the truth. Frakking Cylons and their efficiency - he probably had some kind of super-powerful liver that filtered out the toxins no matter how much he drank. All his organs probably renewed themselves by magic while he slept, he thought bitterly - although, no, Saul Tigh’s eye was evidence against that.
He stopped thinking.
Motion
This was the big one. Pyramid had always come so naturally to him. As the ball shot toward him, he had known exactly how to cut off the angle, where to jump, when to send the ball arcing towards the top of the pyramid. His rapport with his team had been unprecedented.
Everyone had said it was raw talent, or even genius. But when the Cylon thing became clear, so did the Pyramid thing.
Flying was nothing like Pyramid, except that the perfection of motion was the same. The only thing that puzzled him was the machine: surely it could be more responsive, more alive? He found himself longing for the Cylon raiders, reaching out with his mind to the warmth of their bodies, which compared starkly with their lifeless human counterparts.
Nevertheless, with each flight, the machine became more an extension of himself - an extension of the universe. They flew faster, turned more tightly; their will and their reflexes were all that mattered out there in the darkness. Even gravity was just another factor, another force to be reckoned with, like everything else.
He supposed he'd always been part of this movement of people, ships, planets, stars, galaxies - but now he could see it, feel it, hear it, taste it, touch it, even smell it. This was what he had been made for.
Beauty
It was all so beautiful; that was what he hadn't realised. He'd felt it while his knowledge had been cut off by Cavil, but he hadn't known it.
Remembering was better, but when they plugged him into the ship, it was as if they had switched on the universe. This fitted into that, and the other worked like so...it was all physics; he was nothing but physics any longer. And it was worth it - oh, was it worth it.
He felt Kara's presence; felt the tears that she wiped from her face, flowing from her fingers where she touched him. There was peace there, too, although she wouldn't believe it.
At last, they left him alone to fulfil his destiny. And as he soared towards the light, he thought: God. This universe is so beautiful.
remix author: lyras
Summary: The title says it all.
Characters: Sam Anders
Pairings: Gen (background Kara/Sam)
Rating: PG
Beta thanks: Thanks to such_heights and themostepotente for looking this over.
Title, Author and URL of original story: Five Things That Didn’t Surprise Sam About Being A Cylon by beatrice_otter
Author Notes: beatrice_otter, I really enjoyed exploring your stories, so I hope you don’t mind what I’ve done to this one!
Irony
God liked to play dice, he'd heard. Sam decided that God also liked to play mean tricks on his people. Why else was the human resistance on New Caprica led by the Final Five Cylons? Why else was Tyrol's son revealed not to be his? Why did Kara Thrace survive attempted genocide, a nuclear showdown, several Viper wrecks, a universe of heartbreak, a lost father, and a lifetime of pain at the hands of her mother...just to disappear when her job was done? What about her life, Sam wondered.
Why else had he put his soul into fighting the Cylons, only to discover that he was one of them?
So the universe liked to make dark jokes. No surprises there.
Kara
Whether she was fleecing him at Triad, rescuing him from Caprica or driving him insane with whatever the frak it was she had going with Lee Adama, it didn't matter. She was like home, even if he didn't actually understand why until they plugged him into the old lady. But by then he couldn't tell her, anyway.
Perhaps it was for the best. Kara had been through enough, and there was no resurrecting Daniel now.
Alcohol
When the music finally resolved in his mind, when Kara was back, when the immediate crises were over, he retired to Joe's and stacked up the drinks. There were a lot of them, and they still weren't enough to make him forget the truth. Frakking Cylons and their efficiency - he probably had some kind of super-powerful liver that filtered out the toxins no matter how much he drank. All his organs probably renewed themselves by magic while he slept, he thought bitterly - although, no, Saul Tigh’s eye was evidence against that.
He stopped thinking.
Motion
This was the big one. Pyramid had always come so naturally to him. As the ball shot toward him, he had known exactly how to cut off the angle, where to jump, when to send the ball arcing towards the top of the pyramid. His rapport with his team had been unprecedented.
Everyone had said it was raw talent, or even genius. But when the Cylon thing became clear, so did the Pyramid thing.
Flying was nothing like Pyramid, except that the perfection of motion was the same. The only thing that puzzled him was the machine: surely it could be more responsive, more alive? He found himself longing for the Cylon raiders, reaching out with his mind to the warmth of their bodies, which compared starkly with their lifeless human counterparts.
Nevertheless, with each flight, the machine became more an extension of himself - an extension of the universe. They flew faster, turned more tightly; their will and their reflexes were all that mattered out there in the darkness. Even gravity was just another factor, another force to be reckoned with, like everything else.
He supposed he'd always been part of this movement of people, ships, planets, stars, galaxies - but now he could see it, feel it, hear it, taste it, touch it, even smell it. This was what he had been made for.
Beauty
It was all so beautiful; that was what he hadn't realised. He'd felt it while his knowledge had been cut off by Cavil, but he hadn't known it.
Remembering was better, but when they plugged him into the ship, it was as if they had switched on the universe. This fitted into that, and the other worked like so...it was all physics; he was nothing but physics any longer. And it was worth it - oh, was it worth it.
He felt Kara's presence; felt the tears that she wiped from her face, flowing from her fingers where she touched him. There was peace there, too, although she wouldn't believe it.
At last, they left him alone to fulfil his destiny. And as he soared towards the light, he thought: God. This universe is so beautiful.