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Fire... smoke... everywhere...
Naprem coughed violently, tasting her own blood in her mouth. Dark shadows passed over her... people she didn't know...
"Mother!"
Ziyal, my angel...
Naprem tried to focus on the girl kneeling beside her.
"Mother, can you hear me?" she cried.
Yes, n'aria, I can hear you... I love you, my precious girl...
Naprem couldn't speak, couldn't get the words past her lips,the words she longed to say to her only child as she lay dying...
Dying...
She was dying. Soon, Ziyal would be alone... Skrain...Gul Dukat...
His face flashed into her mind...the face that had become as familiar to Naprem over the years as her own.
His expression when he was angry with her...
The love in his eyes when Ziyal was born...
How he comforted her when she missed her family on Bajor...
How gentle he'd been that first night...
Skrain, I love you...
Mustering all of her remaining strength, Naprem forced the words past her lips.
"Ziyal," she croaked. Her head shot up, tears streaming down her grey cheeks.
"I'm here, Mother," she whispered. She tried desperately to stem the flow of blood from the wound in Naprem's side.
"I love you..."
The words brought on another coughing fit and a small trickle of blood leaked out of the corner of her mouth. Ziyal turned to the other passengers,many injured themselves.
"Help me!" she screamed. Nobody listened, either too busy caring for other casualties or too scared to care about a collaborator and her half-caste girl. Ziyal stroked the raven black hair from her mother's sweat-slicked forehead. Naprem's breathing was laboured; she was fighting for every breath.
I can't die...not now...
"Ziyal... I... father..." her voice was so faint, Ziyal had to lean forward to hear what she was saying.
"What is it, Mother?" she whimpered.
"He... will...come... for you,"she managed. "When...he...hears...he'll come...for you."
"And you," Ziyal replied. More tears ran down her face. "He'll come for both of us. Just like he said."
Naprem reached out to Ziyal as the darkness crept in around her.
"I love you..."
As the darkness consumed her, Naprem gave one last shuddering breath and then lay still.