Fic: Take the Souls, Kara, Laura, G

[lanalucy]

Theme: Free For All
Prompt: Laura, Kara lighting candles and praying together
Take the Souls

Kara approached the President. She looked shell-shocked, holding the scrolls against her chest, rocking backward and forward, staring off into nothing. Kara didn’t think anyone here would hurt the President, well, no one besides the Cylons, but she looked like she needed something.

“Madame President?” She waited a few seconds without any response. “Madame President? Laura!” She reached to touch her shoulder and the President flinched, looking up in surprise.

“Lieutenant Thrace? Is everything okay?”

Kara shrugged. “I’m not a priest, not her, but maybe I can help.” She dug in the pocket of her sweatshirt for her idols. They were tiny, ones she’d found again when she'd gone through her apartment. They took up less space than the ones that were still on Galactica. “I don’t have any candles, but I have these.”

“I’m sure the gods won’t mind if we go without this one time.” Laura Roslin smiled up at her, her mouth lopsided and trembling.

Kara knelt on the tarp. “Madame President?” She held her hands out. “The scrolls?” She took them from the President and laid the book on the tarp, standing her miniature idols on top of it, then held out her hands again.

Laura Roslin pushed her shaking hands out and laid them trustingly in Kara’s. Kara squeezed lightly. “I do know some prayers, but if it’s okay, I’d like to share a poem?” When the President nodded, Kara nodded back and closed her eyes.

Night breezes bring the odor of decay
Until the end comes just before the dawn.
With a final choice, the spirit wavers,
And suddenly, the once-shared life is gone.

Darkness, deep and threatening,
Yet with a hint of life and light to come,
Banishes regretfulness, despair -
For in the dawn, a new life is begun.

The rose of dawning lights the sky,
Feathered songs take wing and soar.
With that gliding flight awareness comes
Of a world alive and whole once more.

When she opened her eyes, Laura Roslin was staring at her, eyes brimming over with tears, and Kara was sure she’d chosen the wrong words. “I’m sorry. I should have picked something better.” She mentally chastised herself, almost drowning out the President.

“No. Lieutenant.”

Kara interrupted. “You can call me Kara. We’re praying together. It seems a little silly to use my rank.”

The President nodded. “Kara, then. It’s...it’s not fine, but it’s not because of you.” She lowered her voice, and Kara had to lean closer. “I knew Elosha, a long time ago, long before the Cylons came back, before she became a priest, when I was just Laura Roslin and not the ruler of what’s left of the free world. I said goodbye to her a long time ago, but it’s a different goodbye when you know that person is gone, not just moved on.”

“Mad-”

“Laura,” she said firmly.

“Laura. As long as you remember her, she’s not really gone. Elosha means ‘salvation.’ She went away to become a priest because after the end of the world, you were going to need her to become what you needed to be.”

“Hmm.”

“We can make sure she gets where she’s going…that her sacrifice is honored.”

“Of course.” Laura nodded decisively.

So Kara held Laura’s hands tighter and began the prayer she’d said far too many times since the Cylons returned. “Lords of Kobol, hear our prayers. Take the spirit of Elosha, and the spirits of those who lost their lives to bring us to Kobol, into your care…”