DISCLAIMER: not mine, not intended to violate anyones copyrights.

NOTE: Consider it "Rapture" AU. No spoilers as of the first chapter, only one, very mild and irrelevant, in the second paragraph. Other than that - just my crazy idea.

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THIS OUGHT TO BE DIFFERENT

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The first thing she was aware of, was a hard object pressing on her side. Then she was aware of a cold surface under her cheek, and a red flashing light behind her eye lids . . . Her eyes were closed! She snapped them open, and jolted upright.

A hundred hammers went loose inside her skull. She lifted her hand to touch her temple but her palms were in gloves and bandaged, so she felt nothing, only dulling pain where the glove touched the cranium.

Then she heard a noise. A few noises: buzzing, rhythmic moaning and . . . well . . . Not so rhythmic moaning. The first one was artificial and was in sync with the red flashing light to her left. The second one came from behind a . . . behind a something. Something she found difficult to name, because it seemed to be in a position it was not supposed to be.

She tried to crawl around the thing, and see if there was someone, maybe injured, but as she peeked around the corner she met bright blue eyes of a beautiful blonde woman. That one was certainly not injured, as she smiled broadly.

"Well, how about that?" the woman asked. "Looks like we haven't made it after all."

Why was she so joyful about that? Ah! She was tied up! So she was a prisoner, she . . . Didn't want them to make it . . . Make what exactly?

A moaning reminded her about that someone she wanted to check up, so she looked around. There were two men and a woman lying in odd stances in the undersized space of that something they were in. One of the men was squeezed between two objects sparkling with electrical discharge; he was not moaning. The other had blood all over his face and arm, lay under some heavy object and, as she moved farther, she saw that his leg was bent at an unnatural angle. That must have hurt . . . The other woman – the unconscious one – was also stirring, so hopefully she was about to wake up.

"I would help you," the blonde spoke, seeing her trying to lift the heavy object from the bloodied man. "If you'd only cut those." She lifted her hands, the rope dangling down to her ankles and up to her neck.

"Umm . . . I don't think so."

"Umm, I didn't either."

"Holy frak!" the other, dark haired woman moaned finally. "Starbuck? Hades' forges, What happened?"

"Honestly? I have no idea."

"Oh" the brunette lifted her hand to her forehead, slightly dazed. Apparently there were some hammers inside her head, too. "We must have crashed . . . Careful!" she shrieked suddenly, because one of the men – the one not-so-bloodied – moved, and nearly touched the screeching cable.

"Lords of Kobol!" he exclaimed, and moved his hand away. Winced, coughed slightly and looked around. He assessed the situation in one glance – the damage, the injured colleague, and three women. "Sit-rep," he barked to the one who knew the least. The brunette also looked at her questioningly.

She gasped uncertain what they wanted.

"Starbuck, sit-rep!"

"I am sitting," she replied hesitantly.

Both – the man and the brunette – gazed at each other with alarm. The blonde behind her back chuckled slightly. But before either of them managed to say anything, the other man cried out in pain. Starbuck – she had to be Starbuck, both of them used that name – was at his side in an instant, the brunette followed suit. The man was a little slower, as he needed to drag himself from the trap he'd fallen into.

"Dee, get the med-kit" the man said to the girl, and she jumped and started dashing through some debris at the bottom of the room. "Don't move, Sam."

"If I may suggest something . . ." the blonde started, but was cut short.

"You may not," the man hissed.

"I'd say we should get out of the raptor" she finished nonetheless. "You smell the fuel? Those sparks," she nodded towards the cables, "and fuel aren't exactly the best company."

The man looked behind him, holding Sam's chest firmly, preventing him from moving. Then he gazed at the thing laying on top of his colleague.

"We gotta lift this!" he instructed. "Starbuck, give me a hand."

Starbuck crawled closer. She found the man's approach comforting – his immediate assuming of command, his knowing what to do; she had no idea what to do. She looked into his eyes – very blue eyes, she noticed – as they got ready to lift the weight. He only nodded and she obeyed his unspoken order. But just as they pushed – they backed off immediately. He started coughing and holding his side, and her thousand hammers cut loose again. She moaned clutching her head.

"You hit . . ." he coughed, "hit your head?"

"Don't know" she replied with strain.

"Can't find it" they heard a frightened voice from below.

"Great" the blonde commented with contempt.

"Shut it!" the man spat, and neared the brunette. Dee – Starbuck remembered. Her name was Dee, the moaning, bloodied man's name was Sam – he still moaned – her name was Starbuck, she didn't know the names of the blue-eyed man and the blonde. And they were in a raptor that might go 'boom' anytime.

"There" the blue-eyed man pointed at something.

"I haven't seen it" Dee whimpered.

"It's okay" he stroke her tangled dark hair and she looked up, tears shining in her eyes.

"You think they are waiting?"

"Of course. Try to get it out," he commanded and returned to Sam's side. He looked up at Starbuck. "How's your head?"

"Hurts."

"You know where we are?"

"In a raptor?" she tried.

"And a raptor is? . . ."

"Hmmm . . ."

He sighed, there was a deep worry in his blue eyes.

"Sorry to interrupt your chat," the blonde cut in again, "but if you cut these," she indicated her restraints, "I could help you. You know – lift this thing, and even carry him out. How 'bout that?"

Starbuck looked at the woman incredulously. She was probably tall, though it was hard to say when she was crumpled like this, but she seemed to be of slender posture. She would carry a man twice her weight?

But the blue-eyed gritted his teeth, neared her and cut the rope with one swift move. "Try anything and you're dead," he warned.

The blonde beamed at him, "I'm so scared."

Then she neared Sam, and lifted the heavy object as if it was a cardboard box. She kneeled beside the man and threw him over her arm. He cried again when his leg was moved.

"Careful!" Starbuck screamed.

"We'll strap this outside," the blonde instructed and turned towards the blue-eyed, who was already trying to open the hatch. It was in a wall above them, at a weird angle. The man had some problems opening it, but finally managed with brunette's help. Then they both assisted the blonde with carrying out crying Sam. Finally Starbuck joined them outside.

The first thing she noticed was that it was windy. Very windy. Then she looked at the sky, and though realizing she couldn't remember seeing any other sky, she knew it had never looked quite like this. It was obviously the night, as right above them a few stars sparkled, but they were dimmed by the bright blue fire, that seemed to burn from below the horizon all around them.

"Frak," the blonde whispered.

"Lords . . ." the blue-eyed accompanied her.

"We've got to get to the Temple," the blonde urged.

"We should try get a few things from the raptor," the man countered.

"Put me down," Sam cut in, his voice marred by pain.

"Put him down!" blue-eyed ordered.

"We gotta go" the blonde refused to comply.

"I. Said," the man started and there was no defying this time. There was an undeniable power in his posture, in his eyes, and in a gun he held towards the blonde. He didn't even have to finish; she put Sam on the ground.

"I'm not sure if you realize what the situation is," she hissed with force however, stepping so close to him, that her face hovered above his. "The sun has just gone nova. The only place we are safe, is in the Temple, but we must get there before down, or even faster. The other side of the planet is being burned as we speak, rocks are melting, the atmosphere is being blown out to the vacuum."

"If that is true, then how will we be safe anywhere on this rock?" the man asked. "We're dead already, there's nothing we can do!"

"We'll be safe in the Temple," she stressed. "Trust me. I know."

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t.b.c.?

I don't know why I'm posting this. I don't know if I will continue and for how long – blame it on my hectic schedule. But this idea has been bugging me for quite a while and it needed to be written. And there's so much more I want to explore here . . . A boooo! Sorry. Hope someone enjoyed :).