Lost With You (part 2 of 9)

- DON'T LIE TO ME -

WARNING : Adult themes and a rather big amount of blood ahead. You've been warned.

Tokyo airport, 9.24 AM, that same day.

"Mina, are you sure this delay won't be a problem? I know how you have to be busy with rehearsal and all. God, I still can't believe it... my friend in a Broadway musical!" Serena exclaimed, barely restraining her excitement, even if that was at least the thousandth time she said that. "But I'm sure when you'll be a famous actress they'll never make mistakes with your reservation!" She smiled winking at her friend.

Mina's face seemed to darken suddenly, but soon she smiled back at her friend, "Of course not! They'll ask me for autographs and will offer me champagne on the plane." She said forming a 'V' with her index and middle fingers.

"Yeah! I'm really sorry I won't be able to watch you perform..." Serena said sadly.

"Come on! Don't be sorry, you'll be occupied with your new life in Japan, you'll won't even remember your old friends from US!" Mina winked at her friend.

"Oh, that will never happen, and you know it! It' will be you the one who'll forget us when you'll be a movie star!" The pigtailed girl said. After a little pause she smiled broadly and said: "Let's go get ice-cream while we're waiting, I'm hungry!"

"Serena we had our breakfast only half an hour ago." Mina said shaking her head, the red ribbon in her blonde hair shaking too.

"I know, but airports make me hungry, you know." Her pigtailed friend said as she made her way to the cafeteria.

"Serena, just go ahead with Darien, I'll come later." She said pointing to two very handsome stewards approaching.

"Oh, ok." Serena answered then she turned to look where her friend was pointing and added, "Oh... of course. See you later then." She concluded winking knowingly and went towards her dark-haired boyfriend.

Mina walked towards the two stewards putting on a large smile to hide her troubled face.

Pacific Ocean, somewhere, present.

A couple of hours had passed since the falling wing had crashed the cabin. The survivors were trying to deal with what had just happened, everyone in his - or her - personal way.

"Hi, I'm Umino. I was sat right behind you in there." The young man with thick glasses offered his right hand to the pregnant girl while with his left thumb he pointed towards the wreckage. His English was heavily accented but good. Molly looked up at him smiling.

"Hi Umino, I'm Molly, and this is Alex," she said caressing her swollen belly.

"Oh, do you already know he's going to be a boy?" He said looking intently at her stomach.

"Oh, no, I don't know if it'll be Alexandra or Alexander," she said giggling.

He looked at her confused for a moment then he understood. Blushing he scratched at the back of his head embarrassed. The girl laughed then patted the sand beside her gesturing him to take a seat.

A few meters away a makeshift tent was built with sticks and towels to offer shelter for the injured people. Dr. Mizuno and Ami were resting after having attended their patients for all they could do with the unexpected help of Rei's grandfather. The Shintoist priest had a couple of medical rudiments and an enviable practical sense. Both things extremely useless in that situation.

At the same time Rei was occupied in convincing Yuiichiro she was alright, but she wasn't having any success. She was so exasperated that started yelling at him.

"Don't be such a fuss, baka! I told you I'm ok!"

"But Rei-chan-..." the young man tried to dissent for the umpteenth time but she cut him off.

"Enough! I won't tolerate another word from you, Kumada-san!" She addressed him with deliberate detachment and the lack of familiarity didn't pass unnoticed to him.

"Gomen Rei-san, I'll go see if I can help with anything." He said softly and stood up. She looked at him and realized she had overreacted. Her expression softened.

"Yuiichiro-chan..." she murmured but he was already gone and couldn't hear her.

In a secluded spot under a tree Furuhata was sat fumbling with a sheet of paper. When he had it unfolded he didn't look at it, he just stared into space instead.

"I'll come, onee-chan, I'd just be a little late..." He murmured to the light breeze.

Near the wreckage Lita was walking amid corpses, metal fragments and every sort of discarded objects. She looked around taking in the desolate scenery before her. When she lifted her head she could see a flash of metal in the distance right where the lonely man with long brown hair stood smoking a cigarette, she locked eyes with him for a long moment until he winked at her and turned away.

Not too far the three Kou brothers and Michiru had found shelter from the hot sun under a big fragment of the plane.

"I can't believe I passed out and I don't even have a bump!" Yaten was complaining searching his head for any sign of concussion.

"You better search your pants... I think you passed out from fright!" Seiya said elbowing his younger brother.

"Seiya!" Taiki scolded, "There's a lady with us!"

"Don't worry Taiki-san, I think I'm beyond shock today." She said looking at the wreckage in the distance.

"Gomen Michiru-chan, I forgot my manners." Seiya said, truly sorry. He looked at her searching for a smile of forgiveness for his rudeness but she never looked back at him, neither she did when she stood up and started walking towards the other survivors.

"I'm gonna check on little Hotaru-chan." And with that she was gone much for Seiya's surprise.

Haruka was sat under a tree with Hotaru asleep in her lap. Her gaze was lost in the horizon.

"Hey, how are you?" Michiru whispered not wanting to wake the exhausted child."The both of you?"

"She's asleep." Was the curt-reply.

"That I can see..." Michiru commented as she sat down beside them. "How's your shoulder?" She asked again. Haruka turned finally looking at her.

"Oh, it's fine. It'll be as good as new soon." She gave the aqua-haired beauty a small smile.

"I see..." Michiru replied. After that they remained in silence, Haruka with her gaze on the horizon again and Michiru caressing Hotaru's head.

"Let it be them, let it be them..." She repeated her mantra again and again.

"BIP Hello Mina, it's Serena. Darien and I wanted to remind you our dinner tomorrow night. There will be a friend of Darien's too. Bye!... Oh! I was forgetting: good luck for your casting, I hope you already have an answer from them! I'm sure it'll be fine. See ya tomorrow! BIIIIP" Then the metallic voice added, "End of the message. You have no more messages."

She stood there in disappointment closing her watering eyes, the handset now held loosely by shaking hands.

"Mina! Mina, damn it! Where the hell are you!" Came the shouts from around the corner. "Ah, there you are. Move that cute ass of yours and come back to work, I don't pay you to fool with the phone!"

Mina hung up the phone, leaned back against the stained wall and slumped down to the plastic floor.

"Mina! You heard me? Do you think it would be difficult for me to find another cute and desperate-for-a-job chick out there?"

"Coming! Don't be such a pain!" She yelled back as she stood and rubbed away the tears before they had a chance to fall from her eyes.

She entered the crowded and noisy dining room still tying the white apron she wore on her very short, pink uniform.

"Remind me again why I don't fire you?" Her boss, a bristly man in his late thirties asked her as she passed near the counter.

"Cause you like too much to see this every time I pass by you!" She said pointing at her rear.

"Someone up there told me you're the one to talk to."

Haruka opened her eyes disturbed by the sudden shadow and the brusqueness of the voice. A tall figure was towering her, obscuring the sun. First she looked up at the newcomer then she looked down at the two sleeping figures, one in her lap, the other curled up against her right shoulder. Then she looked up again putting her index finger in front of her nose.

"Shhh!" She said.

"Oh! Sorry." The tall brunette whispered blushing, she scratched the back of her head and giggled very embarrassed, the previous harsh attitude completely gone.

At that point Haruka felt stirring at her right side and two ocean-blue eyes blinked open.

"Hey, sleepy-head..." The blonde said smiling gently. Then was Michiru's turn to blush when she realized that she had fallen asleep on Haruka's shoulder and that they weren't alone either.

"So, what can I do for you?" Haruka asked Lita.

"Well, I was thinking about... doing something." She said suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Something... like?" Haruka asked not understanding what the other girl meant.

"Anything!" Lita said turning around and gesturing at the entire beach tracing an arc in the air with her arm. Haruka continued to stare at her blinking. "Anything. Any-other-thing but sitting and waiting." She turned towards the wreckage and continued, "We should start thinking what we're going to do. Nobody has shown up, no rescue, no ships on the horizon... nothing."

"They should be here by now, you're right..." Haruka pondered the situation then stood with the still asleep Hotaru in her arms. She winced as she strained her injured shoulder. Michiru realizing it was immediately standing and taking the child from her. In that moment Lita noticed for the first time the handkerchief holding the blonde's arm.

"Ok, we should gather and decide what to do." Haruka turned to look at Michiru who nodded in agreement. Then they walked to the 'hospital tent'.

When they had gathered everyone they stood in a circle and begun discussing. As soon as Seiya had reached the group he found Michiru and circled her waist with his arm possessively more than protectively... or that was how it felt for Michiru.

"Get ready, he'll be here soon." And with that the door was slammed closed.

Mina gulped the lump in her throat. She had someway realized what kind of casting was that. In front of the desk stood a plain plastic chair, she stared at it for a couple of minutes. She felt suddenly cold though the hot summer day. She sat down and begun unbuttoning her sleeveless shirt slowly, her fingers trembling slightly.

Then a wet sensation on her hand startled her. She looked down and saw the transparent drop sliding down the back of her hand and into the yellow fabric of her shirt. She stared at the slowly enlarging stain until she realized that was a tear. Her tear. Soon others followed and she broke down sobbing.

A couple of moments later the others girls waiting in the hall saw a blur of yellow rushing down the corridor and towards the exit.

"Mina? Mina? So? Isn't it your shirt? Isn't it your suitcase? It would be an incredible luck to find it." Serena was showing Mina a yellow, sleeveless shirt, "I remember you having a shirt like this." The pigtailed girl remembered right but Mina was absolutely sure that wasn't her shirt. 'I thrown it away that same day...'

"No Serena, that is not my shirt. Now let's move on, we're not supposed to search for clothing, but for medications." She said returning to the large suitcase she was rummaging.

The doctor had instructed them to search for any kind of medications, sewer-kits, even every form of alcohol. She needed mostly antibiotics particularly for Hotaru's father. She had said that was the only tiny chance to maintain him alive until he could be transported to an hospital.

"Yes, you're right. I think we should hurry, too. I want to see Darien before they go... I still don't understand how could the radio be functioning after the plane has crashed." Serena mumbled and stood having finished searching a little leather suitcase.

"Furuhata said there's a supplemental transmitter on every plane for emergency." Mina replied.

"Well, he seems to be an expert. Hey Mina, do you think he has a girlfriend? 'Cause he's nice and good-looking and I think you could..." Her voice faded off.

"I could what? You should stop trying to set me up with guys, it seems like you don't think I could get one myself." Mina answered laughing. When she didn't hear any comment from her friend she turned around.

Serena was incredibly pale and she was trembling. Her light blue eyes shone from tears and were staring at the ground. Mina followed her friend's look to what seemed to be a suit shoe. After a moment she realized that there was a foot in that shoe and an entire body attached to the foot. The dead body of a middle-age man in an elegant business suit.

"We should start considering taking care of those sooner or later." Was her calm comment. She then kneeled down and searched the corpse's pocket. "Aha! I knew it!" She took out of his coat's a little orange plastic box half full of white pills. When she stood she looked to her pigtailed friend.

Serena's eyes were wide, so was her gaping mouth, and large tears was falling down her pale cheeks. She seemed scared. Then the pigtailed girl jumped in Mina's arms crying.

"Oh, you're so brave Mina! You're so practical and brave! I wish I could be strong like you!" She said between sobs. Mina caressed her back soothingly.

"Oh, come on Serena, there's no need to cry for that!" She tried to calm her friend.

"No, you're my idol, even since kindergarten. You are so strong and brave... sob... and beautiful... and brilliant sob... and you're talented too. You'll be a star. You've always been successful whatever you were doing. sob And now you had the sense of doing that and take the medication. I'll never be able to be like you." She concluded still sobbing.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Serena. I think you're a bit too emotional right now." She patted Serena's back then added, changing the subject, "I think we're finished here, let's take these stuffs to Dr. Mizuno... then you have yet to give a good-bye kiss to Darien. And you know what? I think I may be going with them."

'Cause you keep reminding me how a crappy lie my life is...' She added to herself.

"Ok... Hey! Wait!" The young Japanese called for him. He stopped in his tracks, a cold bead of sweat ran down his spine. 'What the Hell does the moron want, now?' He asked himself.

Umino came running to him and panting he offered his right hand and said: "Hey, we never introduced one another. I'm Gurio Umino, nice to meet you."

The older man sweatdropped, he ignored the proffered hand and locked his cold eyes with the smiling face of the Japanese boy.

"The pleasure is all mine, Four-eyes." The tone was sarcastic but Umino's smile didn't fade. Instead he looked at the older man waiting. After a minute or so of unnerving silence the long-haired man gave up. "It's Jade, Four-eyes. Now get away, I have to go."

"Oh, yes. Please go ahead, Jade." Umino moved from Jade's path quickly and returned to his rummaging.

"There's nothing I can do now to make you trust me." The interlocutor's face was unreadable.

"You're damn right." Haruka said curtly, then she looked down at the purple eyed little girl and her expression softened. "Are you going to be alright, Hime-chan?"

"Hai, Haruka-san. I'll be alright here with Setsuna-mama. She's nice, you shouldn't be so rude to her. I like her very much." The little girl said almost scolding.

"Mmh... if you say so then I'll go. Be a good kid, and don't play too much when I'm off." She said and winked to the waving child. Then she headed to the hospital tent that they had designated as their head-quarter due to the fact that the doctor couldn't leave the injured Souchi Tomoe – that was Hotaru's father's name.

When she reached the tent Lita, the brunette who had came to her earlier, Furuhata, the blonde man who was supposed to be able to find and use the transmitter, Michiru, Seiya and Yaten, Seiya's younger brother, were ready to go and find the plane's cockpit. She went to meet the approaching Darien and she realized he wasn't alone. The pretty blonde girl with the red ribbon was with him.

"Hey Haruka, are we ready?" He greeted her with a serious look.

"Mmh, yes, we were waiting for you... emh... before we go can I talk to you... in private." She added glancing shortly at Mina.

"Oh, yes. Of course. Mina can you excuse us a minute?" He asked gently. Mina nodded without objecting and went ahead towards the others.

"We still don't know who was with the Marshall, you have any clue?" Haruka said looking seriously at Darien's blue eyes.

"No, and I'm not too happy to leave Serena here, but we have to do this thing..." Darien confessed her.

"Yeah, I know." She glanced briefly to the spot in the distance where she had left Hotaru with Setsuna.

"Well, let's keep our eyes open and try to be back as soon as possible." He concluded with resolve on his face. Haruka nodded and they reached the group at the tent.

There they met the long-haired man who had survived with them. He had half-a-dozen little box of medications in his hand.

"We're going to try and use the cockpit's transmitter to send an S.O.S. Are you going with us?" Darien asked him friendly.

"No, thanks. It's a total waste of time and energies. If they wanted to find us they would be here already." Was the not so friendly reply.

At his bitter words all the head went up, a couple of pair of eyes watered and hands begun trembling. Someone even started to murmur their despair. And silence fell upon them like a suffocating coat. Haruka snapped out of it first and glared at the long-haired man, her eyes cold like ice.

"That's why we're going. If they're not here could it be cause they don't know already. We'll tell them." All the heads turned towards who had the hopeful and positive speech.

Furuhata.

The blonde man was already heading toward the forest with a confident smile on his lips. The group soon followed him dismissing Jade and his words.

The trip was quite hard cause the path was unbeaten and the wood was pretty thick. For the first hour they walked in silence, the tension almost concrete amid them. They didn't knew each others and Jade's words still echoed in most of the components' thoughts. The only one who seemed confident and optimistic was Furuhata who was also guiding the group with a steady pace.

But soon the silence became too much for Mina to stand, the dark thoughts that had tormented her lately were eating into her mind painfully. She spotted the three figures walking a couple of meters ahead of her and reached them. She had recognized them immediately but the events had kept her from approaching them. Now she put on her most charming smile and swayed her hips out of habit accelerating her pace towards them.

"You know, even in this crazy circumstances it's amazing. I'm a huge fan of yours." She said when she was beside Yaten, who was really her favorite with his beautiful sense of fashion and his cool manners.

The sudden breaking of silence startled Yaten. He looked at his left and saw the pretty blonde girl he had seen before with Darien and his girlfriend. He smiled at her happy that someone would made them snap out of that heavy and quite scary atmosphere.

"Oh, thank Kami someone had recognized us. I was starting to think we're not as famous as our agent thinks." He smiled and said joking – or was he not?

"How could you doubt our success, lil' brother? You'll be always popular with a cool and incredibly handsome brother like me!" Seiya intervened winking at the pretty girl.

Michiru and Yaten rolled their eyes while Mina blinked trying to understand if he was joking or not. But after a few seconds and one of Seiya's patented smiles she concluded it didn't matter cause he was right anyway.

That first try at talking seemed to dissipate the heavy silence for the whole group and within minutes Lita, Furuhata and Darien were talking too. Only Haruka remained silent at the end of the group.

As Seiya was completely engrossed in the conversation with their adoring fan Michiru considered that was the perfect moment to sneak away from them. And just when the blonde girl was telling about her promising carrier in the show-biz Michiru slowed her pace to make them go ahead.

While she waited for them to be far enough she asked herself why she was so willing to be with someone else. After all they were her travel-mates, her friends and colleagues, they were supposed to understand her and be the perfect company for her. And they indeed were a good company. Yaten had a good sense of fashion and she had been happy to have a competent partner for her shopping expeditions. Taiki was a real gentleman, cultured, kind and sophisticated. And Seiya... Seiya was handsome and brilliant, kind and charming. He was very talented and this was something she had always searched in her friends cause that was part of the 'freak-attitude' that had tormented her lonely childhood. Everybody had always been admired, scared or envious of her talent but nobody had ever been able to really understand her.

She saved her internal considerations for later on and approached the handsome blonde at the end of the little expedition group.

"Hey you there! All alone and brooding..." The aqua-haired woman said with a smile.

"Brooding? I don't brood!" The blonde mumbled back then she lifted her eyes to meet Michiru's. The smile that greeted her was one to take one's breath away. It was slightly amused, a little concerned and with a tinge of tenderness that evidently Michiru had been unable to hide.

"What? I have something on my face?" Michiru tilted her head a little, searching her own face with one hand. After a moment Haruka realized that she was staring and dismissed her thoughts quickly, without giving her mind enough time to consider the implications.

"No, you have nothing on your face. So, aren't you entertaining your fan?" She replied quickly shifting Michiru's attention elsewhere.

Michiru was surprised by Haruka's comment and wasn't able to hide that fact. She stared at the tall blonde dumbfounded until Haruka's laugh got her attention.

"What? Don't you know you're famous?" Haruka's amusement was evident in her bright teal eyes and Michiru considered for a moment how beautiful those eyes were when the blonde's smile reached them.

"Of course I'm aware of that... painfully aware, actually. It's just that you don't seem to be someone who's fond of music, especially pop-music." She replied honestly.

"Actually I'm not... fond of pop-music. And you neither." That was a statement, not a question. "You wouldn't play the violin for pop-music." She explained, then added, "But though I don't like pop-music I know who those three are... and though you don't like pop-music you play with them." There was something bitter in her sentence, particularly in the last words. Both of them noticed that and both were surprised at the tone. Even Haruka herself.

For a couple of minutes an awkward silence fell between them. Haruka was scolding herself for her tone and tried not to ask herself why she had said that that way. Michiru, on the other end, was surprised the blonde knew so many things about her present career.

"I noticed..." Michiru spoke first, "I noticed your Japanese is flawless but so it's your English. Where are you from exactly?" That wasn't just to interrupt the silence between them, Michiru was sincerely curious about the blonde, she felt like wanting to know all about her and she had found herself compelled to ask.

Haruka remained silent for a minute, deciding about answering or not. She didn't like to talk about herself, particularly with someone she had just met. But the aqua-haired girl had a weird and pretty scary effect on her and without realizing she found herself answering shortly but sincerely.

"Technically I'm American." She stated.

"Oh."

The aqua-haired woman seemed almost disappointed at that and Haruka quickly added, "But I lived more than half my life in Japan, so... I think I'm more Japanese than American." The last words were spoken with gravity and Michiru thought someway they had to have a special meaning for the tall blonde. Haruka didn't continued talking and Michiru sensed she wasn't comfortable with that subject so she shifted to a less personal topic.

"So what do you do for a living?" The body language of the tall blonde proved Michiru's thought to be right. Haruka relaxed visibly and answered more quickly at this one.

"I work in the sports system... motor-sports." At that her teal eyes sparkled with passion and Michiru was once more captivated by that look. She wasn't surprised by the fact the blonde worked in a field made for men, it suited her perfectly and nothing of that seemed out of place. But a slight sense of uneasiness at the back of her mind prevented Michiru to be completely comfortable. When she was about to speak out another question Haruka anticipated her.

"Hey, why I'm the only one giving out all the personal information?" She had said the words playfully and Michiru liked that a lot.

"Cause you don't ask anything, and cause you seem to already know a lot about me." Michiru replied equally playful.

"Well, it's hard not to know you, you're on all the newspapers. You seem to be the favorite subject of photographers lately... and they can't be blamed for that... beautiful and talented." The smile that followed those words was one of incredible charm. Michiru blushed furiously at the flattering comment. The flirtatious attitude of the blonde had struck straight to Michiru's heart which skipped a beat sending a shiver through her system.

A blushing and giggling Michiru was what met Seiya's eyes when he reached the end of the group searching for her. That image was so different from the always composed and aloof Michiru he knew. The initial surprise faded off and was replaced by a sense of annoyance that was once more caused by the presence of the tall blonde.

With a renewed resolve the dark-haired boy grabbed Michiru's arm and interrupted them abruptly. "Can I talk to you for a minute, Michi-chan?" He stressed the extremely intimate nickname he addressed her with and the cold look he received back from the aqua-haired beauty told him that had been a mistake.

"Seiya-san, what do you want?" She kept herself for openly scolding him cause she hated to make scenes in front of an audience, but the temptation was strong.

"Can I talk to you in private, please?" His attitude had changed after her look and she took that as a silent apology.

"Excuse me, Haruka-san." She said to the suddenly cold-eyed blonde. Haruka nodded and she let Seiya pull her ahead.

"What are you doing?" He asked her accusingly.

"What are you doing?" She replied shooting him a glare with her stormy blue eyes.

"Do you know that is a woman?" He asked whispering and stressing the 'that'.

"Of course I do, I'm not blind nor stupid!" She replied angrily. "And why this would be a problem?" She then asked, she didn't understand why he was so upset. Was he jealous? 'No it can't be, we're not dating, beside there's nothing to be jealous of, is there?' Michiru thought.

"Cause she-..."

"There! It's there!" Furuhata's excited shout cut Seiya's and all the others' sentences off.

The group stopped and all of them looked where the blonde man was pointing. In front of them there was the plane's cockpit, actually there was what it remained of it. It had crashed deep into the wood, tress were crashed under it and even if they had cushioned the fall some of them had passed through the airframe. So what was before their eyes was a bloody, impaled metal carrion. A thin column of smoke blew upon it but there was no fire.

"Haruka and Furuhata will reach the pilot's cabin to try and find the transmitter, the others will look for anybody still alive." He couldn't hide the skeptical tone in the last words.

Though the instructions had been already given nobody moved. It was Lita who stepped in first after a moment.

"Oh my God..." They all heard when she was inside.

"What? What's in there?" Yaten said very anxious.

"What do you think it's in there, baka!" Seiya asked sarcastic then he followed Lita in the airframe.

After them was Darien's and Mina's turn and then Michiru's. Yaten had remained outside but nobody seemed to have noticed that.

Haruka and Furuhata had circled the nose of the plane to see if they could enter the cockpit another way. Part of the glass of the nose was shattered and Furuhata tried to make it through that but he couldn't find anything to grab and pull himself in. He remained dangling half in and half out until Haruka with her good arm pushed him inside from below.

"Thank you!" Came Furuhata's muffled voice from the cockpit. Then he gasped.

"What?" Haruka asked and not receiving any answer, "I can't get inside from here, I'm coming in from the other side!" She said and she hurried back around the nose.

Once inside the airframe the sight was dreadful. Corpses were everywhere. Some still tucked in their seats some discarded around. One was even impaled by a branch. But what was really shocking was the amount of blood, too much blood even for a crash down of that proportion.

"Haruka I need a hand here!" Furuhata called, snapping her out of her dazed state.

"I'm coming." She said but it was just a whisper. She made it to the cockpit without looking back to the others.

Michiru had a hand on her mouth completely in shock, Lita was panting hard trying not to throw up, Darien had his eyes closed and was silently praying, Seiya with his trembling hands covering his eyes. Mina was the only one who – though shaken – tried to check on some of the corpses. She didn't say anything, just looked around passing by her shocked companions and searching for the victims' pulse points. Her eyes were full of tears but she didn't gave up to the horror of that deadly sight.

Meanwhile in the cockpit Furuhata was already searching for the transmitter. He had tried to move the pilot's seat but it was too heavy cause the pilot's body was still buckled on it.

"It should be right under it." He said to the blonde once she was in. He glanced at her only for a moment but he saw she was particularly pale and her eyes were wide. "Tenoh-san? What's happened?"

Haruka didn't answered, she tried to move the pilot's seat with her right arm but it was impossible. Furuhata saw her gesture and forgot his question, he joined the blonde woman's efforts. Then they decided to unbuckle the body and try to move it out of the way first. They did it but when they were moving him they heard a soft moan.

"Shimatta! He's alive!" They laid him down carefully.

"Run! cough... run, hurry! It'll come back!" The badly injured pilot said anxiously.

"Hey, it's ok we're here. We'll take you to a doctor. There's a doctor with us at the beach." Furuhata tried to reassure the pilot but he was very agitated.

"Hurry, take the emergency transmitter... cough..." a trickle of blood came out of his mouth. "They... they... cough... don't know... cough out of path...cough cough... thousand miles out of path... it hasn't finished yet... cough... it will... back... hurry... thousand miles... its teeth..." It was more and more difficult for the dying man to speak and his words became less and less intelligible. He coughed one more time then he went completely limp with his empty eyes wide open and pointing at the ceiling. Haruka then looked at Furuhata and shook her head. After a moment of silence she spoke.

"Come on, we have a job to do." They continued searching under the pilot's seat and after a minute or so Furuhata stood triumphantly.

"I have it!" He had a black transmitter in his hand.

GROAR!

"Oh my God, ohmygod... ohmaygoohmygod..." Said Lita looking around at the bloody mess, the corpses seemed to be literally devoured. Michiru fumbled having slipped on the blood covering the ground and almost lost her equilibrium. Darien was already walking out with Mina cause obviously no one was alive in there.

GROAR!

The airframe shook hard and all of them fell to the ground. After a moment of surprise Haruka and Furuhata was out of the cockpit and with the others. They were all silent and panting heavily.

GROAR!

Again the plane's structure shook heavily, the noise seemed to come from the cockpit and Haruka who was closer couldn't help but peek over the seats and in the cabin. She saw the pilot's body being pulled out through the half shattered glass, then she gasped when a big splash of crimson squashed on the part of the glass still unbroken.

Michiru saw Haruka and lifted to look over the blonde's shoulder to see what had made her flinch but Haruka promptly grabbed her and pulled her against her chest preventing the aqua-haired girl from seeing that horror.

"No! Don't..." The blonde murmured. Michiru remained still, Haruka's heart beating fast under her ear.

Then suddenly as it came whatever it was was gone, only their hard breathing was audible in the silence. They exchanged scared looks and slowly one after another they stood.

"Kami-sama Yaten!" Seiya stood abruptly turning back and forth, and realizing his brother wasn't there with them. He ran out of the cabin.

"SEIYA NO!" Michiru too stood from Haruka's lap and ran after her friend. The blonde wanted to run after Michiru but with her right arm stuck against a seat and the other in the hand-made sling she wasn't able to stand, so she disengaged her left arm from the handkerchief and stood wincing.

In a minute all of them were out of the cabin despite the danger. Seiya was calling for his brother out loud. They split to look for the missing man in more directions. After a couple of minute of frenzy searching. Michiru had a glimpse of silver among some dark bushes. There crouched with his back to her was a heavily shaking Yaten. She got close to the trembling form and crouched behind him.

"Yaten-chan?" She addressed softly at him.

"Kami-sama help me..." He was murmuring, seemingly he hadn't acknowledged her friend's presence.

"Shh... it's over. It's gone, calm now. Here..." And with that she embraced her terrified friend from behind trying to soothe him.

Haruka who was searching nearby reached them. When she saw the scene she simply stood there in silence understanding her presence could upset the already distressed boy. While standing there she couldn't help but consider how sweet Michiru was in that circumstances, she wasn't just the elegant and snob talented beauty the newspapers pictured her.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a dashing Seiya who run to the two crouched figures.

"You ok? It didn't hurt you?" The silver-haired man just nodded. Michiru then stood leaving Yaten in his brother's care, she turned and her look crossed Haruka's concerned one. The aqua-haired girl someway understood what the blonde was thinking and touched Seiya's shoulder to get his attention.

"It's not safe to remain here, we better go." She said that very softly and Seiya nodded standing and pulling his brother with him.

Furuhata was checking on the transmitter while the others sat around the fire they had lit with Lita's lighter. They sat in silence at first then someone started to talk to ease the tension. No one wanted to talk about the horror they had seen in the afternoon so they just talked about trivial subjects.

"You know Mina, I never thanked you for coming with us in Japan. It meant a lot for Serena." Said Darien tossing little branches into the fire. He was sat with Mina and Lita, the tall brunette.

"No need to thank me, Darien, it was fun. Besides I won't spend a lot of time with Serena anymore in the future. I just took my chance." Mina replied with a tinge of sadness.

"I know..." The dark-haired man dropped his gaze obviously troubled. Mina saw that and tried to reassure him.

"I will be too busy anyway, you know. This Broadway-thing will have me full-time. Rehearsal all day long and parties every night. It'll be hard life." She concluded laughing. Even for her own ears that laugh resounded exaggerate, fake. 'Like the bullshit I'm saying...' she told to herself.

"I'm glad you made it, that was your dream." He smiled at her sweetly. He was sincerely glad for her and that knowledge was like a stabbing in her heart.

"Yeah..." She faltered for just a moment, but soon her patented smile took its place on her pretty face.

"Serena is so proud of you. She hangs around bragging about her successful best-friend all the time. That's her. She can be completely happy for someone else without the smallest bit of enviousness." His blue eyes became dreamy at the thought of his fiancée.

"Yeah, she's amazing. She should be proud of herself most of all... of her life. So real, so truthful... So honest."

She picked up her score the pianist lent back to her and was out of the theater in a minute. It has been the tenth audition of that week and every time it was a 'we'll contact you' but no more contacting. Every damn time.

"Mina! Mina!" A panting Serena reached her on her way to the subway.

"Serena, what are you doing here?" Mina asked her friend when she had calmed a little.

"I wanted to make you a surprise for your audition. I know how important it is for you." The pigtailed girl said with an open smile.

"You're too sweet to be true, Serena. Let's go for an ice-cream, my treat." Mina was glad her friend was there with her. She was always her support, even if it could seem the other way around. Sure Serena was clumsy and childish, but she was always positive and her happiness was contagious. And you could always count on her presence. For Serena friendship was something sacred.

"Yes! Ice-cream! Wait... your treat? You mean we're celebrating! Oh my God Mina, you made it!" The pigtailed girl hugged her friend in a dead-grip embrace almost lifting her from the ground. "I knew it! I knew you would have made it! You're too talented."

Mina was taken aback by Serena's enthusiasm. Her friend was so happy that tears had already started to form in her light blue eyes.

"Calm down Serena! It's not like that-..." She started but the other girl interrupted her.

"What do you mean? The audition went bad?" Her face fell and all her happiness was replaced by such sadness and disappointment that Mina couldn't help but...

"Sure it went good! No, I mean it was greatI was great! A performance Oscar-worthy. It's just that... we still haven't had our debut. Us actors are superstitious, you know. Now let's go celebrate." Then they went into a café and ordered for the biggest ice cream they had.

'Sure that was the best performance ever. Yeah... I'm a very good actress.' Mina thought returning her attention to the current conversation between Darien and Lita.

"Don't tell me you're not brooding now." Said Michiru playfully and sat down beside the blonde.

"I told you before, I don't brood... I think very hard!" The answer was equally playful and both relaxed a little.

"Ara, I didn't intend to interrupt all that hard thinking, please go on, your expression is pretty entertaining itself." Playfulness was something deeply rooted in her personality but somehow it had been always hushed up by herself or others. Now, despite the desperate situation Michiru felt good in the blonde's company. She enjoyed teasing the blonde and she enjoyed the complicity that seemed to exist between them.

"Oh, now I'm an entertainer. Do you like the show?" Haruka asked winking but was taken aback by the husky reply.

"Very much." Michiru said that with a low, sultry voice. She didn't know what had possessed her. She had intended to be just playful but what came out of her mouth was something flirtatious if not kind of... sexy.

Haruka did something she rarely let happen. She blushed. She wasn't new at flirting, right the contrary. She considered flirting with pretty girls like a hobby. Sweet words, compliments, kissing hands or little gestures of gallantry were like a second nature for her. She always displayed her charming smile and every pretty girl in the neighborhood was falling for her. But she never was the prey.

'And you certainly aren't now!' A voice scolded in her head. 'There's no way she intended more than teasing you. She's straight and she's probably dating that moron.' Her internal voice was right, or so she convinced herself.

Michiru was so surprised seeing the deep crimson ascending from the blonde's neck to her cheeks that she chuckled softly and hardly kept herself from laughing out loud. She recomposed herself only when a scolding glare of those teal eyes pierced her.

They remained in silence for a while looking into the fire before them. The light moment was over and dark thoughts returned to haunt their mind. Haruka replayed in her head the mysterious words of the pilot. They were 1000 miles out of their path and the rescue squad was probably searching for them somewhere else. Michiru on the other hand was trying to shut out of her mind the sight of those devoured bodies and the tactile sensation of the blood under her feet.

That was the reason cause the violinist wanted to resume some form of conversation, she had to keep her mind occupied. She then looked at Haruka and found her massaging her sore shoulder and just then she realized the handkerchief intended to prevent movements of the injured limb was missing.

"You shouldn't move that, you know?" Michiru said then.

"I'm not moving it, beside it's just a little sore." Haruka stopped her action and turned to look at Furuhata who was sit across of her. "Has he made it? I don't like this waiting." She said trying to change the subject.

"We have the whole night to wait anyway." Michiru considered calmly.

"Yeah..." Haruka's short reply surely hid more. Something was bothering the blonde and it wasn't just the past happenings, Michiru could sense that. 'Is she scared about the... thing? Or is it something else?' Then Michiru realized what seemed to be Haruka's main concern since she had met her after the crash-down. Hotaru.

"You're worried about Hotaru-chan." It was a statement not a question.

"I'm fine." The blonde had become laconic.

"Mmh..." Michiru looked at Haruka with a skeptical glance and the blonde noticed that.

"Ok. Yes, I'm concerned about her. She's there and I'm not." Was the simple answer.

"But she's with Setsuna-san, isn't she?" Michiru tried to reassure her.

"Yeah..." Another laconic answer.

"You don't trust her." Silence followed Michiru's statement until Haruka explained herself.

"I'm not used to trust people I just met." Haruka never looked at Michiru instead she looked into the fire, the flames reflecting in her eyes.

"Of course... Actually you don't seem the kind of person to trust people in general." The violinist spoke softly cause she already knew that personal issues weren't comfortable for the blonde. And the lacking of a reply was proof of that.

The silence lasted for long minutes. The chatter of the others and the crackling noises of Furuhata's efforts of making the transmitter work seemed far from them, just a dim background. Michiru felt suddenly cold. She sensed Haruka was trying to reestablish some distance between the two of them and she didn't like that. So she made a risky move, she needed reassurance even if she didn't understand why.

"And what about me?... Do you trust me?" The words were spoken softly but with heavy seriousness. Haruka turned to look at her for the first time and what Michiru saw in those eyes left her confused. It wasn't annoyance, nor scolding for her intrusiveness, like she had expected. It was... 'Fear! What are you scared of? It is me? It can't be me, I don't scare people, do I?' The violinist thought. Then she shook her head. 'You are a real mystery Haruka Tenoh...'

"Haruka?"

Fortunately for Haruka, Furuhata called for her and she had an easy way out of the soon-to-become-emotional conversation.

"You were expecting someone else." Was Mina's amused statement. She smiled without bitterness. "I can't blame you. You have such a taste for handsome and talented people. But then again you are beautiful and talented too."

" You're very kind. Thank you. And I was told you're a talented actress, too." Michiru replied, her smile growing.

"Oh well, yeah. I..." she swallowed, "Yeah, I actually... Oh, never mind! We were talking about you... you lucky you." Said Mina with a very large smile. She had just won a little battle against herself.

"Mmh... so tell me, why am I lucky?" Michiru asked chuckling. That girl was funny with her fan-attitude but not too reverential. She has a good charm and Michiru thought she could really reach success in the star-business where a pretty face, charm and freshness could be rewarded more than talent alone.

"Well, look at yourself, you're beautiful! And you're not even stupid!" Mina said a little too loud. Michiru's eyes went wide but she soon burst out in laughter, tears in her eyes. Mina blushed and quickly apologized. "Oh, sorry. But you got what I meant, didn't you?"

"Yes, I got it. And I think that was really a compliment." The violinist replied after recomposing herself a little, but still smiling brightly.

"Yeah, and you're with them all the time. They're so different but so charming..." Mina's blue eyes were dreamy, "Ok, Seiya is more my type, if you know what I mean..." She winked at the dazed violinist then continued "...but you can never know what life has in store for you. Besides, in my opinion you have to experience everything but incest and willing chastity." The blonde girl concluded forming a 'V' with her index and middle fingers.

Michiru wasn't sure to have understood what Mina was meaning but smiled anyway even just for the last sentence.

"I thought Yaten was your favorite. It seemed so, earlier in the woods." Michiru said honestly.

"Of course Yaten is my favorite! He's so elegant and handsome and his voice is... heavenly!" At those words Michiru sweatdropped, but her confusion grew.

"But you just said Seiya..." Then Mina understood and her eyes went wide in surprise.

"You thought I was referring to Yaten and Seiya... don't tell me... Oh my God, you don't know who is she!"

"What? Who?" Michiru asked, Mina's exclamations didn't help her to understand what the hell she was talking about.

"You don't know much about sports, do you?" Mina asked her.

"Well... no. Actually I don't know anything about sports. Even if I was in the swimming team back in high school." Michiru answered honestly.

"Oh, and you don't read gossip magazines neither, I guess." Mina said skeptically.

"Yes, I have to when my agent make me. He want me to know all the things they write about me, but I hate all those stuffs. They're mostly bullshit by the way." She said sighing.

"So you don't have any idea who Haruka Tenoh is." Mina said, every word pronounced slow in a theatrical way.

"No, I'm afraid not, but now that I think about it... when we were boarding... Of course! She was signing an autograph, that was the reason the hostess were so excited even before seeing the Threelights." Michiru replayed that moment in her head and realized the hostesses were talking about Haruka when they had said that that was their lucky day.

"She's the world Formula One champion. The first woman car-racer to win in the hardest category of motor-sports! She's an idol and a model for every girl in the world and even for many boys." Mina said like she was a sponsor.

Michiru looked at Haruka across of her sat helping Furuhata with the transmitter and thought: 'I wasn't expecting anything less from you, Haruka Tenoh...'

Mina saw the smile on the beautiful violinist's face and smiled herself. There was something going on, that was for sure.

Then, like someone – possibly God or Kami – had heard their silent prayers a voice came out of the little black transmitter.

"Doctor, the baits are already in the garden. And Teddy had already had his first meal. We're waiting for further instructions." A clear male voice said.

"Ok, good job. Come back home. For today you're off. Now we just have to wait for them to... bzz...plbzzzzzz...it'll...bzzzzzzz...fun... bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-" The female's voice was cut off when the signal disappeared. They remained dumbfounded, that wasn't obviously the answer to their S.O.S.

"What the Hell was all that about?" Lita inquired looking at Furuhata. He shook his head dazed.

"I don't know... it seems like we had received unintentionally someone else's transmission. But... it was very clear at the beginning." He added thoughtful.

"And what does that mean?" Darien asked anxiously.

"Well, it could be they are pretty close." Furuhata answered.

"If it is so, then why did it go all 'buzzing' and then it went off?" Seiya asked skeptical. All seven pairs of eyes was on Furuhata. He swallowed suddenly self-conscious.

"Ehm... it clearly is a private channel so no one other than the owner and the designated receiver is supposed to intercept it. I think our transmitter has changed frequency to search for the regular international channel like it is programed. During the shifting it had passed through their channel." They were all convinced. "But I can say it could be transmitted from some place close to us." The blonde man said firmly.

"How close? You mean on this island? ...If it is an island." Yaten asked.

"Close in order of kilometers." All eyes looked at him full of hope then he added, "...hundreds kilometers." He smiled apologetically like it was his fault. They all sighed in disappointment and returned to their seats around the fire.

"I think it's better trying to get a bit of sleep if we want to come back to the beach early in the morning." Mina said practically.

"Like we are in any rush..." Seiya murmured bitterly in Japanese for just Michiru's and Yaten's hearing.

They all settled for the night, they even decided to take guard-shifts. Furuhata drew Haruka to a secluded spot with an excuse, when they were alone he spoke anxiously.

"We have to tell 'em." The blonde man was very nervous.

"What?" Haruka asked even if she had already guessed what he was talking about.

"What the pilot said. That we're out of path, that probably they're searching for us in another place... a thousand miles far from here." He said almost desperately.

"Hey, Furuhata-kun, you have to calm down. Listen to me. If we say that to them it will be panic. And if that's true and we'll have to spend a long time here, do you think that panic could be helpful in any way?" She said calmly but firmly. She bent slightly to be at the man's eye-level and took his shoulder in her hands even if her left arm protested painfully.

After a moment Furuhata shook his head in surrender. "You're right Haruka-san. Hope could be the only thing we could count on in the future." He said that with a little spark in his eyes, then he smiled at her and said, "Ok, we should rest now, it has been a pretty intense day, hasn't it?" Haruka chuckled at the last remark.

"Yes, I guess it has been. Come on." And with that they reached the fire and while Furuhata laid down Haruka sit near the fire to take the first guard-shift.

No one of them could get any sleep that night. Some expecting to hear a horrible roar any moment, some thinking about their life, some cause every time they closed their eyes they saw a bloody mess, some replaying over and over terrible words that stole every ounce of hope from them and some cause every time they closed their eyes an other pair of ocean blue eyes haunted them.