Bel

Astre solitaire

Qui meurt

Quand revient le jour

~ Lune, Bruno Pelletier

Translation:

Beautiful

Solitary star

Fading away

With the coming of the day

XxX

Mahad bit his nails.

It wasn't in his habit to bite his nails, but he had to do something to keep himself busy. He was going crazy. He wanted to go faster, but he knew Cortes was already pushing the St. Nazaire. The last thing they needed now was another accident.

XxX

Still in her semi-consciousness, Dahlia could feel the life slowly dripping out of her. How many blood would she have lost now? She had been here for quite a while. Surely she couldn't take much more blood loss?

Oh well. Maybe it was better that way. Maybe she'd finally find the peace she'd wanted for so long. Maybe the dreams would stop. Maybe she'd even see her parents again!

If she could, she would've smiled at the thought.

But then again, that would mean loose Mahad.

The thought had the same effect as a bomb. No. She couldn't loose him. She couldn't leave. Not before she had told him she loved him.

Although she was getting weaker and weaker, Dahlia started to fight the darkness.

XxX

The St. Nazaire landed with little difficulty. Mahad was already on the ground before the ramp had properly been put down. He had stopped biting his nails though. There were other matters now.

He couldn't keep his eyes off the exploded mosquito, hoping that somehow she had survived.

But he had to face reality.

Chances were minimal.

Still. The chances were there.

Wayan and Cortes joined him soon and together, they went to investigate the ship.

'It's a miracle the Vector's tracker survived…' Wayan's voice trailed off.

'The Vector designed it to survive explosions.' Cortes answered, his eyes searching through the wreck. 'Alright, obviously she's not here, and any tracks she could've left will have been washed away by the rain. We'll split up and each take a side. Mahad, you go west. Wayan, take east. I'll handle north. If you don't find anything, go south. Radio contact every twenty minutes.'

The two other men nodded at the Captain's orders before leaving in the directions they were told to.

XxX

Mahad kept on worrying about Dahlia. Even if she survived the initial crash, she may have been badly injured in the explosion.

His thoughts darkened as he started thinking of the possibilities of how she could have died.

NO!

SHE WAS NOT DEAD!

"Yet." whispered a tiny voice in his mind.

"Lalalalala, not listening to guilt, lalalalala."

Oh bugger. Now he was going mad as well.

At this point, he stumbled across a small cave. Half-expecting it to be empty, he took a look inside anyway.

Yep. Nothing.

"Wait a minute...What's that…"

'Dahlia!'

As fast as his feet could carry him, he ran over to her, dropping on his knees when he reached her and carefully lifting the crumpled body up.

She was breathing. Barely.

'Dahlia…' his voice trailed off when he noticed her wounds. Several cuts and bruises were visible on her face and hands, but her legs seemed to be in the worst shape. A piece of metal stuck out of one of them, the other was only half covered by her pants and it looked like that had been bleeding a lot too. He guessed there were several pieces of shrapnell embedded in both.

'Dahlia…' he whispered in the woman's ear, wondering if she could hear him.

It was a miracle, but the young woman opened her eyes, softly moaning from pain.

She stared at Mahad with half opened eyes, and before he realized what he did, he pressed his lips against hers.

Dahlia didn't stop him, but didn't kiss him back either. Mahad pulled back wondering he might have overdone it. Dahlia just blinked and gave him the the faintest smile before she lost consciousness again.

It was only then that Mahad got the sense to call the others. She needed medical help.

Fast.

And how on earth would she react if she learned that he had lied to her and had probably put her into this mess.

That was a worry for later. They needed to get her onto the St. Nazaire, out of the cold, where they would be able to give her First Aid.

The rest could come later.

XxX

A/N link to the song http : / www. youtube . com / watch ? v = 1hClC3Ev17A without the spaces.

And yes, I am fully aware that the literal translation of "qui meurt quand reviens le jour" is "that dies when the day returns" but again, I like more poetic versions.

Yes, I know, I could've gone with the English version, but the truth is...I don't like it all that much. I prefer the original French version myself, although the English version is not bad.

But I digress (and this is probably my longest Author's Note EVER).

Also, I know this chapter is rather short, but I promise I'll make the next one longer.

Hope you enjoyed it! See you next time!