A/N: This chapter hasn't gotten much in the way of an edit, so I'll apologize in advance for any typos. I am just really tired right now and really wanted to get it posted. I've also opened a Deviantart account and have posted a picture in relation to this story, so please check it out and tell me what you think. Speaking of leaving me a note…please review, as usual. The link to the picture will be at the end of the chapter.
Chapter 11
Year 2252
Chapter 11
Year 2252
Within hours of departing the Oxford Block the Saint Nazaire stopped at the Rendezvous point to find a mosquito waiting for them. As they neared it someone got out of the small air craft and leaned against it, waiting for them. It was Mila, of course. Cortez had contacted her as soon as they had been able to and very little would have stopped her from coming, the Captain knew that much. Hence, he was not surprised to see that she had managed to round someone up for a ride, enlisting Sanskin to fly her in and land the mosquito on the outer deck. The pair had become rather good friends, he gathered. They certainly had a certain shared set of fears being realized; being taken prisoner and having their children threatened.
Lena and Mahad both went out to greet her, well aware that it was a mandatory filial duty for them since their mother's release. It was one they did rather happily; the separation had instilled a deep sense of gratitude for her presence in their lives again and usually they reveled in these hugs. Usually. Both knew that this particular reunion was unlikely to be as pleasant as most were. As expected, Mila rushed over and threw an arm around each of her children as soon as she had hopped down from the mosquito. Neither Lena nor Mahad seemed to think that her stumble upon landing was anything unusual, no doubt dismissing it as a simple misstep or even a lack of 'Ship legs' or something.
"Thank goodness!" Mila breathed, one hand stroking her daughter's hair as she kissed Lena's forehead and then Mahad's in turn.
"Mom! We're fine!" Mahad groaned, though he didn't disentangle himself from Mila's grasp immediately, waiting about half a minute before doing so gently. He no longer found it embarrassing as he might have done two years ago on Babylonia. He wouldn't be mocked for it with the rebels as he might have been with his former classmates anyway; too many of them would give anything for the opportunity to show their mother or father or other loved one some kind of affection again. Six months ago he himself had been in the same boat, watching the reunions he and his sister had made possible with the feelings of pride and satisfaction heavily laced with envy. Mila released him and put both hands on Lena's shoulders, holding her at arm's length to examine her daughter. She gripped the young girl's chin and tilted it up slightly to get a better look at where she had been wounded. The area was still a little red but was healing at the remarkable pace that even few seijinns could achieve. Nevertheless, her mother still pursed her lips and sighed.
"You have got to be more careful young lady," she scolded
"Mom, I'm okay!" Lena told her, exasperated
"We are going to be having a conversation about this when we get home!" Her mother snapped. Mila's heart was still pounding in her ears at the idea of Oslo getting his hands on her children. She and Sanskin both walked with them to the door leading to the bridge of the Saint Nazaire.
"Cortez," Mila greeted.
"Mila," he returned. He quickly glanced around and motioned to the gladiator standing with Cheng by the console. "Kale, you, Sanskin and Cheng have the bridge. Everyone else, the cabin,"
Kale nodded eagerly and stepped forward to take the ship wheel as Cortez stepped down the metal stairs to head the line towards his cabin. The others followed suit and filed in to the windowed room. They walked in to see that someone was already there; a young woman stood with her hands clasped behind her back, looking out the window. Her red hair was sheared short and she wore a black sphere uniform. When she turned around at the sound of the door opening the others could see the small red tattoo similar to Di Wan's, though smaller in size, over one eye. On her sleeve was the Sphere insignia overlaid with a crude drawing of a pen. A clerk's insignia. Di Wan had been true to her word.
Mila was a little taken aback to see a guardian in the captain's cabin and, moreover, to see the others apparently so happy about it; Dahlia nodded to her respectfully, Wayan smiled good naturedly and went over to shake her hand once, each clasping the others elbow briefly in a comradely way and Mahad and Lena both grinned.
"Alice!" Lena exclaimed happily.
"I didn't know you were coming here!" Mahad half-laughed. He followed the dark-skinned rebel's example and clasped the guardian's elbow.
"As soon as I heard about Oxford I knew I had to come. I can't stay. They're expecting me back tomorrow at the academy, but Cortez asked me to come," she said as she hugged Lena quickly. When she saw the girl's mother her eyes widened a fraction and she straightened. Her hand raised as though to start a salute before she seemed to think better of it and ran her fingers through the hair on the side of her head awkwardly instead. She stood at attention as she addressed the seijinn and nodded to her curtly as she took a step forward and offered her a hand "It is an honor to meet you, Ma'am,"
The older seijinn raised her eyebrows
"I'm…surprised to hear it," she stated "I didn't exactly leave the Academy on the best of terms…"
"No, you're notorious," Alice agreed "Half the teachers call you a traitor and the other half hold you up as a cautionary tale of Stockholm's' Syndrome in Seijinns. But since I found out the truth about the Sphere…well. Let's just say that I've been reevaluating my lessons. I'm not the only one, either,"
Mila nodded in a mixture of respect and gratitude. She had, of course, been told the story of how Alice came to Puerto Angel and secretly changed her allegiance before returning to the Sphere as a rebel spy. It made little difference to her what Guardians thought about her after all these years, but it was still somewhat comforting to know that she hadn't become as much of a caricatured banshee amongst young seijinns as she was a glorified martyr to her children and their friends. It wasn't something that she dwelt on very long, particularly when her head was pounding and her legs a little shaky. She took Alice's hand and shook it, a small wisp of seijinn blue flitting around their joined hands briefly. For an instant both grips tightened, both gazes intense. In the next instant the moment was over. Alice blinked, taken aback at what she had sensed. In the next second, however, the expression vanished and was replaced by a strained, friendly smile as she turned to her other friends.
"Would it be okay if we sat down for this meeting? It's been a long day on my feet," she said. The others all nodded quickly in sympathetic agreement and many of them, including Mila, took seats as well. The elder seijinn caught Alice's eye and gave her another small nod, this one deeply grateful to the girl for not revealing her secret even after she had inadvertently discovered it. The expression on the younger woman's face was grim, though. Their brief exchange had imparted to her the older woman's desperation not to uncover her illness—as well as her reasons for the concealment— but Alice apparently shared the Vector's views. Thoughts were much faster than words, however, and Mila had already extracted a similar promise from the young spy as she had from her old friend.
"Alright, let's get down to business. One of our informants should be joining us soon but she suggested we start without her," Cortez said with a weary sigh. His lack of sleep over the past few days was starting to catch up with him. Unfortunately there was always one more crisis…
"Yes, I hear that we have new passengers," Mila remarked calmly, meeting Cortez's gaze with cold question.
"Aye," the Captain said.
"Di Wan," Mahad told her darkly.
"Di Wan? But she was killed months ago at the Battle of Karzem!" Alice exclaimed in confusion.
"Aye, we thought so too, but apparently not. We found her on the Oxford block. Claimed she had amnesia and now isn't Oslo's woman anymore,"
"She's lying!" Dahlia snapped, her volume dropping as she added "She's playing us. She has to be,"
"Of course she is, this is Di Wan, remember? " Mahad agreed, patting the blonde's shoulder comfortingly.
"Wayan might have a point about her bridges being burned, though. She didn't exactly have the best track record by the end of it all," Cortez mused aloud. He looked towards Alice expectantly and waited for her insider's input. The redhead sat at attention as she always did and shook her head in confirmation.
"No. She still had some standing, yes, but there were rumors going around about her being replaced. Guardians were starting to vie for the position like circling vultures," the guardian told them. She paused and thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I think even as early as when I first met you she was on the way down. She was always interested in me, but she had started fast-tracking me. I think she was looking for a few more favors to call in,"
"Is there any chance that she could be playing us? Trying to catch us or something to get back into their good books? I mean if Oslo is still alive too…"
"What?" Alice demanded, looking around at her comrades in shock. She snorted "Didn't anyone stay dead after that battle?"
"Apparently not any Guardians," Dahlia remarked with a shrug before softening "Sorry Alice. We know that those two posed the most danger to you just like they did to us. You should get the word out to your contacts as soon as possible,"
"Believe me, I will," The redhead told her earnestly. She had actively worked to get as far away from a position on Oslo's staff—even his office staff—as possible, well aware that he was one of the few seijinns in Skyland who might be able to break her telepathically. Alice was perhaps on par with Celia, Lucas or Jeloah in terms of raw power but her prodigious gift with the more cerebral aspect of seijinn powers— telepathy and empathy— placed her in a much more elite circle of peers and enemies. As such she was not too worried about her immediate supervisors or the other seijinns who had not already joined her secret cause that surrounded her daily. Oslo, on the other hand, was a terrifying prospect.
"So what do we do with her? We can't trust her. We can't bring her to Puerto Angel," Mahad stated firmly.
"Aye, but we can't leave her somewhere where the Sphere might pick her up again either," Cortez said as he paced slightly, caught in a dilemma.
"Could we drop her off at Ningxia?" Mila asked.
"No, much as Master Zha-Lo might like to see his 'Little Phoenix' again, it's had too much history with the Sphere, too many chances for them to plant spies there," Dahlia reminded them with a shake of her head.
"Well, how about Temuera? They definitely have the guards!" Mahad suggested.
"And have her that close to the Origin? No! What if she brings the sphere back there and they manage to take it away?" Lena demanded indignantly.
"You're the only one who can work it, why would they care?" her brother retorted
"No, she has a point. It's a very dangerous weapon they have there. With or without Lena, you never know what some of their scientists can do with the materials they have," Wayan put in, reasonable as always.
"There has to be somewhere we can put her! It can't be that hard!" Lena said exasperatedly.
"We still don't know if she's even a threat yet. You never know, she might really have changed," Alice said earnestly as she glanced around the room. Mahad, Lena and Dahlia were, predictably, the most adamant in their disbelief towards that sentiment; they'd had the most direct contact with the seijinn apart from maybe Cortez. Mila was dubious, Wayan was— as usual— reasonable and open-minded. Cortez wanted it resolved quickly so that he could move on to the next inevitable emergency.
"I find that hard to believe," The captain remarked in response to her suggestion. He rubbed the back of his neck and heaved a great sigh as he paced slightly. "But, we should explore all options. I want someone to talk to her. Do we have any volunteers?"
There was nearly a full minute of silence as glances were exchanged. There were almost too many reasons to want a chat with their fallen enemy, few if any of them very, well, noble. There was a vindictive thrill that each of them would be tempted to exercise if they dared. It was unlikely that she would escape this time with the most powerful seijinns present, two of whom had beaten her multiple times. At the same time, however, they had all noticed a certain listlessness. Her barbs had been mostly reactionary and in many cases half-hearted at best. She had been very quiet for the most part and if her injuries were feigned, she was good at concealing it. Overall, if she was leading them on she was bloody good at it.
"I'll do it," Dahlia said finally as she stood from her seat. She saw the surprised looks that they gave her and shrugged. "She's claiming to be my family. She's probably expecting me. Besides, I want to hear what she thinks she has that she thinks will pull the wool over our eyes,"
"I'll go too," Alice said.
"Are you sure? It's risky," Mahad pointed out "I mean, what can she tell the Sphere about us that they don't already know about? We've already got bounties on our heads but you..."
"I know what the risks are, Mahad. I knew them when I signed on for the job. I'll hang back. If she's been that badly hurt her powers probably aren't what they normally are so in poor light she might not be able to sense it's me,"
There was a slight pause as Cortez briefly considered this and then nodded. It was a logical move. It wasn't a solution, but it was a step towards one, potentially.
"Alright. Report back to me after you've spoken to her. Now, what about our other guest? Anyone want to see about her?"
It didn't take any time at all for a volunteer.
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:See? Everything worked out, didn't it? It whispered in Lena's ear as It wisped around her in its miniature form. The "pair" of them were sitting in one of the windowless cargo bays, though not the one with the mosquitos. She wondered vaguely how long it would take them to make the Mark II. It couldn't be that far off, surely…she shook her head and swatted at the translucent, glowing bird uselessly, her hand moving right through its form and doing little to detract from its intent.
"Leave me alone," She muttered half-heartedly, well aware of the futility of her request.
:Where are we going?
"You're in my head, you know what I know, don't you?"
:No, I know more.
"For heaven's sake!" Dianne sighed hitting her head against the wall tiredly, her elbows resting on her upraised knees. She closed her eyes. The buzzing that almost always in the back of her head was getting louder, the babbling rising to a point just short of being anything coherent. It was maddening. She took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before exhaling slowly and repeating, focusing entirely on her mental shields. While doing so she managed to doze off, for the next thing she knew she was jerking awake with a start at the loud, echoing boom of the door opening.
The teenager looked up at her visitors blankly for several long moments, looking from Mahad to the woman next to him with slight confusion before her eyes widened and her jaw slowly dropped. Mila walked right up to the metal railing and brought her hands down to rest on it, spread wide in an authoritative position. She regarded the teenager with her mouth set in a grim line, a slight frown and narrowed eyes, her head cocked to the side slightly. Neither of them said anything for a very long time. The teenager was vaguely aware of the older woman's gentle probing at her mental shields; even in her mild state of shock upon recognition they were still formidable: they had to be. Still, the probing was just that, probing. Not that the time traveller expected anything less from her. It was Mila who broke the silence.
"So you're the one that everyone is so startled by," she said, not unkindly. "Dianne, isn't it?" As if her words broke some kind of trance the teenager on the level below her suddenly jumped a little and scrambled to get to her feet, smoothing her coat out self-consciously as she stood. She visibly swallowed as she nodded.
"Ye-yes," she stammered. The rebel seijinn's eyebrows rose slightly as she nodded and started to slowly walk down the stairs to join her.
"It takes quite a lot to startle this crew. They've all been through a great deal. It must have been… impressive."
"That's the nice word for it," Dianne said nervously with a high, thin, little laugh. She cleared her throat uncomfortably before stammering "I…ah…um…d'you need to sit down or something?"
"It's okay, it's just my mom, you don't have to worry," Mahad assured her in a friendly way as he jogged down the steps lightly.
Dianne opened and closed her mouth a few times, peering at Mahad in apparent confusion, her brow creasing and head tilting a little in question. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and looked over the rebel pilot's shoulder at his mother, pointing to the young man.
"They don't know?" she asked "How…? How do they not know? How long does it take you to tell them?"
"Know what?" Mahad inquired with a frown, taken aback at the question.
"They don't, do they?" Dianne said, stepping around him and ignoring him completely as she approached the steps where Mila still stood. "They can help you! You're wasting so much time and energy hiding it! No wonder…"
"That is quite enough!" The older woman snapped.
"Mom, what is she talking about?" Mahad asked.
"Nothing. It's alright honey," Mila replied, still looking right in Dianne's pale blue eyes. They were so familiar, so similar to that of her own family, she couldn't help but notice. She broke eye contact to glance over to her son "Could you do me a favor and just tell your sister to fetch some of the class objects? I'm teaching as soon as we get home,"
"You sure?" Mahad asked
"Yes, I wish to speak with our guest in private. I'll be fine," When he hesitated she changed her tone to that of an order "Now, Mahad."
"Okay…" he said slowly, walking back up the stairs at an even slower pace. Mila waited until he had closed the door behind him before charging down the remaining few steps and backing the teenager up several paces.
"Who are you and how did you find out?" Mila demanded in a hiss. Dianne started slightly when her back came into contact with a wall.
"It's all over you, even now! You can barely make it across the ship without feeling exhausted, am I right? How do they not know? How do they not notice? Do you ever actually tell them or does it just take them months to figure it out?" the teenager demanded, her tone an odd mixture of anger, indignation and despair. The older woman frowned slightly in confusion at the tense that she was using but decided to focus on a more important subject than grammar. She was far more interested in the knowledge she seemed to have. Her gaze also travelled to the girl's neck; the collar of her coat had shifted on one side to allow a peak of the pulsating blue glow to show.
"What's this?" she inquired, hesitantly reaching out to pull back the material of the coat. The teenager's gloved hand snapped up to her wrist in a grip that, while not harmful, was nevertheless powerful and promised the ability to at least bruise should she choose. Mila was a little taken aback at this reaction, though on second reflection given her aggressiveness moments before it was hardly unfounded, she supposed, and she softened accordingly. The poor thing looked suddenly terrified.
"Don't," she said quietly
"I'm not going to hurt you," Mila told her,
"I know but…don't." Dianne stated, edging to the side in order to circle around the older woman. She released her wrist only when she was a pace and a half away so that the older seijinn wouldn't easily grab at her again. She grasped the collar of her coat and pulled it up with a snap to better conceal her neck; the fact that it also concealed the inner fabric of the coat and what might or might not be sewn in there was purely coincidental, of course. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against one of the large barrels of fuel, facing her companion. Mila sighed and swallowed as she chose her words carefully. Before she could speak, however, the teenager was asking her questions again, her voice quiet and almost choked.
"Why don't they know?" she whispered again, sounding as though she were almost in tears "It's not fair, why won't you tell them?"
There was no use lying. She knew and Mila was well aware of said knowledge. There was no point in insulting the girl's intelligence. She therefore didn't waste her time in doing so and instead asked,
"How are you able to tell?"
"It's all over you!" Dianne exclaimed, her hands flying out and shooting up and down to indicate the older woman in general, apparent horror written across her expression as she stammered out her attempt at an explanation. She buried her fingers in her hair and started to pace.
"Your energy is all…wrong! It's your…it's you but it's not you it's…how does that girl call herself your daughter and not notice?! I can't believe not even Da—" she cut herself off and took a long, deep breath through her nose "I find it hard to believe that no one has seen the signs. You're going to try and tell me that no one has said anything?"
"A friend of mine is…aware of it," Mila admitted. Dianne blinked and then scoffed at some private joke apparently.
"Course he is," she muttered
"Pardon?"
"Nothing," she said quickly. The elder of the two seijinns raised an eyebrow but didn't press the matter.
"Well," Mila remarked "You have me at a disadvantage it seems,"
"Bu-but you never answered my question…"
"…as I was saying earlier, it takes a lot to surprise or unnerve this crew when it comes to seijinn power after spending a year with my daughter. So, who are you and why are you here?"
Dianne seemed to deflate, looking decidedly uncomfortable again.
"I'm running from the Sphere, like everyone always is and…and I don't have anywhere else to go. But I can help. Trust me when I say that no one wants to bring Oslo down more than I do," she whispered, slowly looking up to meet the other seijinn's eye. Her admission had started out vulnerably, but the moment that Oslo's name was mentioned her tone darkened and her gaze hardened. She wasn't done, however. She straightened and squared her shoulders unconsciously as she declared "And know that I will kill that Leech before I let him hurt you again, that I am more than willing to die before I let him hurt any of you ever again,"
The ferocity with which she made that statement took Mila by surprise. It unsettled her. She couldn't help but wonder how much anger and despair this young woman must harbour to be willing to kill and die for strangers if only it meant that she could bring this man down. The elder seijinn could understand such passion; she had seen it in many of the rebels and held such intense emotions herself, but she knew where hers came from and could usually pick up a general idea of that which fueled those around her. The mystery surrounding this newcomer, however, had the potential to be dangerous. Mila couldn't pick up anything from this seijinn and ran into nothing but telepathic walls the likes of which she had never encountered before. What did escape was also strange and unnerving; it was aggressive, angry and eager for a fight. Yet at the same time her expression seemed to be as vulnerable and open as her mind was so adamantly closed. It made Mila suspicious of her, but at the same time there was something about the girl…something familiar…
Without another word Mila turned and started to climb the stairs again. Dianne blinked, taking a step forward in confusion.
"Wait! Where are you going?" she demanded, just stopping herself in time before a different name from "Mila" escaped her lips. The door closed behind the woman in question, leaving the teenager alone with nothing but the voice in her ear for company again.
8888888
Dahlia stared at the door to the holding cell, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her jaw set angrily. Kale stood next to her, his grip on his staff tight. Neither said anything to the other. The silence was not comfortable, quite the opposite, but neither was it antagonistic. If anything the pair was commiserating.
"We have to be nuts," Dahlia muttered.
"She's not going anywhere," Kale said, clanging the end of his staff on the floor menacingly. He, too, was staring intently at the door. He reached for his belt with one hand subconsciously where his canister of exelerium was clipped. "She comes out here, we'll be ready. Though if she's smart, she'll stay right where she is,"
"She got out of there once," the blonde pointed out.
"Yeah, well that didn't really work out too well for her," the ex-Gladiator remarked, "I know if I was her I wouldn't want to come up against you again after what happened last time,"
"Don't remind me," Dahlia muttered, turning her de-activated energy bow over in her hands absent-mindedly. She sighed and leaned her head back against the wall, glancing over at her friend "So how are you holding up?"
Kale shrugged.
"Fine," he said "If you're talking about Di Wan, well I'm not happy about it either."
"It is the mother of all bad ideas, but I wasn't actually talking about her," Dahlia remarked, eyeing the purpling mark down one side of his face and the split lip. He assuredly had other such angry marks underneath his long-sleeved shirt, but he wasn't complaining about any of them and wasn't sharing them either. The bruises were the reason she was on guard duty with him. They were fairly certain he didn't have a concussion and Kale himself was shrugging it off by insisting that he'd suffered much worse as a gladiator. They didn't doubt it, but still wanted to be certain that their friend was alright. As such they didn't stop him from going about his job, provided that he had a buddy with him for a day or two, just to be sure. They intended to have the Vector look him over as well when they got back within the hour, even if only for the one thing he would admit to: a buzzing in his right ear. Once again the Gladiator shrugged.
"I keep telling you guys, its fine!" he growled in exasperation "First Mahad, now you…I have to admit though, it might have gone differently if that other girl hadn't been here."
"What? That Dianne kid?"
"Yeah. She'd have done well in the arena if they put seijinns in there. She's tough. Took down a guy who had at least 50 pounds on me in about thirty seconds. Vicious too. Really smacked them around before sending them flying and she seemed to be enjoying it," the Gladiator remarked. He shrugged as he remembered another thought "Still, it was a good thing for me and Cheng that she showed. Those guys were good. They were trained, and not just in a gladiator ring, though I'd bet a ship at least one of them was an arena vet."
"A guy with 50 pounds on you in thirty seconds?" Dahlia asked incredulously.
"Yeah, it was kinda weird. Her eyes were glowing and she had this…look on her face. Think she used her powers to amp up her strength but she could probably hold her own without them. Someone taught her how to fight and they did a good job,"
"Well, she's not telling us anything," Dahlia remarked. "But after all that went down at Oxford I'm pretty sure we can trust her,"
"My mom thinks so too," Mahad said as he came around the corner. He had his hands in the pockets of his father's coat.
"Hey man, are you really going to start wearing that all the time?" Kale laughed
"I don't know, I think it suits me. Don't you agree, Dahlia?" The pilot asked, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively as he leaned in towards her. The blonde rolled her eyes and covered a portion of his face with her hand, pushing him away in slow motion, though a small smile was tugging at the corner of her mouth as she did so. Mahad chuckled as well before sobering somewhat again. He jerked his thumb in the direction of the door.
"I'm here to relieve you. We're nearly there," he said.
"Okay, be careful though," Kale said as he straightened from the wall.
"Don't worry. No one's getting past me or my name isn't Mahad Farrell!"
"Since when is it Mahad Farrell?" Dahlia asked him
"It is! Hey, Farrell was my dad's last name so I might as well use it. I'm his son and proud of it! It's cool to have a surname. Besides, it's in my jacket," he said smugly, pulling the collar out to show them the stitching of 'MF' on the inside. Dahlia shook her head but Kale just shrugged.
"Hey, fair enough. If we had last names we'd probably use them too. Later Farrell," he said, clapping the pilot on the shoulder as he walked past. Dahlia followed him, though she punched Mahad in the arm playfully.
"Hope you don't expect me to start calling you 'Farrell'," she told him good-naturedly.
"Wouldn't dream of it," he told her before sobering. He nodded in the direction of the door. "You ready for this?"
The smile fell from her face as she followed his gaze back to the hunk of metal that she and Kale had spent the last couple of hours staring at as they chatted. She nodded.
"Did you um…hear?" Mahad asked awkwardly.
"They've made a mistake, okay?" Dahlia half-snapped, her hands coming up in a stopping motion as she took a defensive half-step back, subconsciously distancing herself from even the idea.
"Dahlia…"
"Mahad, don't go there. I know what you're going to try and tell me but she's not my sister. It's not like this is you and Lena. This is Di Wan,"
"Okay…so why have you decided to see her?" he asked, a little confused. The blonde shook her head and didn't meet his gaze readily.
"It's…complicated," Dahlia said. Since her fight with Di Wan several months ago she had replayed the scene over and over again, both awake and asleep. She didn't know why that particular death had affected her in quite that manner. She had seen plenty of people die, she had even killed some. It came with the territory of being a rebel; sometimes it was kill or be killed. She never liked it; she always regretted taking a life and hated it even more when she failed to save someone. Di Wan had been her enemy and she had been willing to do whatever it took to prevent her from hurting the other members of the rebellion, but she had also tried—and failed—to save her. It was a weird combination of guilt that had followed the incident. She needed to put it behind her.
"Why don't…" Mahad started, chickening out halfway through his offer. The blonde blinked at him and he cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably as he started again "Erhm…why don't I go with you?"
"I'm okay Mahad, I can handle myself," Dahlia said gently.
"Oh no, I know you don't need me there…I just wondered if you might, you know, want me—or just someone in general! It doesn't have to be me, or anything but just…you know someone to go with you…never mind," he stammered awkwardly, looking away at a point in the corner to try and hide the flush creeping up his face. Dahlia was taken aback a little, but was touched. She was also at a bit of a loss. There was an awkward stretch of silence where she opened and closed her mouth a few times before finally finding her mouth again.
"Mahad I…Thank you. But…Alice is already coming to see if she's telling the truth,"
Mahad's back-peddling was so fast it was almost amusing.
"No, of course! Right, right of course…forget I said anything. I'll just um…wait out…here…that was stupid,"
"But…" Dahlia began as he turned away from her. He stopped and whipped his head around, his bright blue eyes meeting her brown ones. His expression was oddly vulnerable as she continued hesitatingly "Maybe, I don't know, maybe…next time?"
This time it was Mahad who blinked, his face slowly brightening as he nodded enthusiastically. The corners of Dahlia's mouth twitched at him in a half-smile as Alice approached with Wayan. The blonde quickly motioned to her and opened the door to slip inside before the pilot could ruin the moment with anything 'flirty'.
"You know, you might get further with her if you keep to stuff like that," a familiar voice said from a little way down the hall. The pilot turned to see Wayan leaning against the wall by his shoulder casually.
"Huh?"
"When you're trying to be cool she thinks that you're just fooling around. When you're being sincere she notices,"
"You think?" Mahad asked.
"Listen Mahad," Wayan said as he put a hand on Mahad's shoulder as he imparted this wisdom "I've known her for over a decade and lived with her for years. I don't 'think' so, I know so,"
Mahad looked him in the eye and nodded in agreement, a small, pensive smile spreading across his face.
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Mila's approach was a quiet one, but one that Cortez heard nevertheless from his position at the wheel. She came up the steps and stood beside him, looking out through the window at the clouds in front of the ship.
"Well?" he asked.
"There's something about her. Something…not right. I can't tell much about her apart from the fact that she knows far more than she should and has a lot of anger and despair,"
"Aye, ye don't need to be a seijinn to see that," Cortez said. "I need to know if we can trust her,"
"Well, she has no love for the Sphere. 'My enemy's enemy,' and all that," Mila said with a sigh.
"But can we risk a time bomb like that?" the Captain pointed out. His old friend shook her head slowly.
"I don't know," she admitted darkly. After a moment she sighed and shrugged "But can we risk her falling into Sphere hands? I don't like to think what Oslo would do to her to harness the kind of power you described to me, or what he would do with it once he had it. I don't think we have much choice but to extend our protection to her,"
The captain huffed slightly, deep in thought. He knew that she was right. The same thought had already crossed his mind. He stared resolutely at the sky ahead of him and nodded once in assent.
"Let the Vector know so he can find somewhere to put her," he said. Mila nodded and turned away, heading for the communications' station. Cortez continued to look ahead, hoping that he had made the right decision.