"The first that she be spared the pain / That comes from a dark and laughing rain..." Felix swallows, afraid to look. Ready to look; feeling something that's not there. "When she finds love may it always stay true / This I beg for the second wish I made too ..." Every day he'll wake up, from dreams of dancing, running, and there it'll be: the loss of something precious. He sings.

Laura stands weakly at the head of the Quorum. There's a tremor through her body, weak as four clipped corners, but there's no weakness in her voice. "I didn't come here to beg, or plead, or apologize, or to keep my job. You know me better than that. And I didn't come here to create sympathy by parading my illness in front of you. On the contrary, there are some that probably believe that along with my cancer drugs, I have inoculated myself against compassion." She smiles into silence. "That is a joke." Nothing. They've inoculated themselves against belief, with Zarek's smile and Lee's innocence as goads. She nods. "I am here because I want to tell you face to face that I believe in this mission and what it means for our future. I'm here to profess my trust in our new allies. I'm here to ask you to listen, I'm here to ask for your support. Bring her in."

Natalie enters, the black queen, with a thousand Marines surrounding her. She is unchained. The Quorum stares and murmurs, hatefully. Kara stands at the back of the room, a knight. Natalie looks at them, the hate in them. The fear and the hate. Trust starts somewhere. She steels herself.

"In our civil war, we've seen death. We've watched our people die. Gone forever. As terrible as it was, beyond the reach of the Resurrection Ships... Something began to change." Lee takes it in: the Quorum and their sudden stillness. Kara watches quietly. "We could feel a sense of time, as if each moment held its own significance. We began to realize that for our existence to hold any value, it must end. To live meaningful lives, we must die and not return. The one human flaw that you spend your lifetimes distressing over, mortality..." Laura stares at the table, sick of illness and sick of compromise and sick of this word most of all. These are toys they want to play with. She could slap her, in this moment. Happy birthday.

"...Is the one thing... Well, it's the one thing that makes you whole. I believe it was no accident that we were found by Kara Thrace. It was destiny..." Kara starts to fugue out, because don't even say that word around her or else she will go nuts. "She asked me to lead my people, and I accepted. No matter what the sacrifice, even if it should mean my death..."