Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own Yugioh, Don't own Halo.

Author's Note: I wrote this at 1:00 a.m., so I'm sorry for minor grammatical errors, but I tried to work those all out. Sorry if it is a bit short and/or pointless, but that's just how I feel tonight. At least I didn't go out and describe some really gory scene in the dream...

'C'est la vie' is French for 'It is life'.

Screaming, yelling. The sound of a rocket soaring past drowned it all out for a moment, while the explosion of the apparatus killed it. Her vision was blurred as she pulled herself out of the bloodied dirt. Quickly, she checked for wounded or missing limbs, since she could feel sharp pain returning to her body.

Another explosion, she had to try and keep herself balanced even though the bomb hadn't been close to her. She looked as her vision cleared, hearing the return fire of large machine guns. The few men left looked terrible; it was hard to imagine the torn figures behind the stations to be alive, or human. They were covered in dirt and blood, with profusely bleeding new wounds as well as the terribly infected old ones.

Surely this place was a living heck. She remembered vaguely years gone by, and wondered if they were worth it. Soon, she'd be dead just like everyone else. And here she was standing on one side of the roaring battle with no weapon, no aim, no point, just gashes and blood to show for the time she had spent here. If they lost, that's all any of them would have to show.

You never really know what kind of things to feel in a moment like this. Your hate has been exhausted, your sorrow dead-ended. You know self-pity will get you nowhere, and you have come too far to sit and cry for your losses. Nothing matters other than the fact that you're here, and you either deal with it or die.

…and for the first time in six years, she smiled to herself, "C'est la vie."

Nurya's eyes snapped open. She wasn't sure why or how she had woken up; her alarm hadn't gone off. She pushed off the covers and sat on the side of her bed, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"I want to go back to sleep…" She told the clock on her bed side table, which was blinking the numbers 3:26 a.m. at her. After a minute or two of just sitting there, she decided to get up. Starting her day this early wouldn't have been quite so unusual a few months ago…

It was Saturday the 14th; Valentines day. The funny thing was that had they been celebrating Valentines during the actual school day it would have been on Friday the 13th. Today was the day of the dance, and though on normal circumstances she would have never gone in a million years, her cousin had insisted. Honestly, it was less painless to go than to listen to her constant nagging.

Dawn, Nurya's cousin, was turning 16 today, meaning she could officially date. She was always dreaming of romance, so this was her dream come true, and she couldn't seem to understand why Nurya wasn't as found of romance as she was. Nurya had been 16 since the 5th of September, and she saw it as more of an un-sweet sixteen.

She opened a drawer in the bathroom, pulling out a brush. She was determined to get her wild hair out of her face- she would make an attempt at 'nice' when it was actually time for the dance. Time. She had plenty of time. Now all she had to do was figure out how to kill 14 hours. Jeez.

Her mind was too cluttered to go back to sleep. In the small apartment there was little to do, and TV bored her to death. Music could help; she knew from passed experience that she could fall asleep to punk rock. She sighed and fell down backwards onto the bed once more. Its worth a shot.