A/n: ~Hey readers! I got the idea right after watching AvP the other night on the Space Channel.

Out Standing

July 12, 2011

by: Her Head in the Clouds

She didn't hear any words, no verbal recognition of any kind. Just constant clicking and hissing noises for the entire past twenty minutes of the flight.

She'd raise an eyebrow in scepticism whenever any of them would turn down to stare at her, but as long as they didn't shove or touch her, or if Scar remained at his post respectably beside her, she was content.

And it wasn't to say she was afraid of what was transpiring around her (she'd been through hell and back just less than an hour ago). More so, she was just plain curious and the high-risk expeditionary in her remained forever alert.

Alexa understood when the head-hunter (as she could only guess by his chiefly red cape and girdled appearance) approached her with the offering of his warrior staff - it was a sign of honour and gratitude. Then, she easily understood when she watched the other hunters come around Scar (she innocently gave him that name for her own interests, remembering his mark) and lifted his body on the stretcher and carried him back onto the ship - he was dead, but he was still a fellow warrior and member of their clan, and they needed to bring him home. But what she hadn't, couldn't understand was when the Chief Hunter, who had been the last to enter the ship, turned around before he entered and beckoned her follow in with the roll of his shoulder and a loud click of his mandibles.

Alexa stood in stock fear.

"What?" she had asked more to herself than the head predator. At the time, it seemed like the only appropriate response.

Even now as she stood in the alien ship at this moment remembering that moment, it still hadn't sunk in with her. She had agreed after a few more minutes of hesitating and impatient calling by the leader and before she knew it she was knowingly pulled several, what scientists called, 'light years' away from Earth.

Alexa was on alert but not completely pulled apart from her surroundings as she stood among the other predators. Scar had returned to rest of the group after several minutes away, probably getting patched up in their medical bay because he had a long black synthetic like fabric around the gaping wound Alexa had remembered him getting.

He had looked dead to her when she kneeled beside him in what she thought were his final moments. Perhaps she forgot to realize that these aliens had much different anatomy from humans and they could probably withstand a lot more than she. Maybe he had only went into comatose or a hibernate state in that moment after the Alien queen was dragged away, and she vaguely wondered about what had happened to the other two hunters that were with him...then suddenly remembering the detonation bomb and the gaping hole where the pyramid once rested made that thought, and any thought of her fallen team, fly bitterly from her mind.

Space was black as she stared beyond the glass standing beside Scar. She found that space was a lot more black and empty than they perceived it to be on Earth. He clicked his mandibles quietly as he silently observed her reactions to the view. He, along with the rest of his comrades, knew that this was the first a human had ever been or seen beyond their own solar system. Space just looked so empty to her. No words could describe how incredibly cold she felt just staring beyond the ship's window. It was much more than they could ever say or put on paper...

After what seemed like an hour, Alexa found herself asleep, slumped on a wall near the window, her arms around her slender form for warmth, clutching the retractable staff the chief had given her in her tight fist. She didn't know where they were taking her. But she had a good feeling they would return her home, so her energy needed replenishing.

As she slept, the predators clicked and hissed around her, unbeknownst to her sleeping figure, talking amongst themselves.

'Why bring The Weaker?' they conversed.

'No, not weak. Strong this one is.' Scar nodded his head to agree with his chief.

'Killed The Mother,' he replied. 'Brave heart, cunning mind.'

'We will return this one, after one trip,' the chief stated then turned and walked out of the hangar. The others followed suit, except for Scar who was given the responsibility to stand watch over her.

His helmet scanner was back on his face, the mark of his first kill still freshly seared into the forehead. New armor adorned his chest as with new weapons. He took in the profile of Alexa, clicking and hissing as he read her bio-scans.

He was fascinated by the human's biology. A red life stream, instead of green, a strange set of ribs, and a wide pelvis, small muscles and an even smaller brain. But the heart, only one and it pumped so very fast even as it looked like she had entered a dormant state. Was the human healing herself, he wondered? He magnified his scanner 12000X and switched to infrared. Tiny cells ran through her body, clustering by the thousandths around her cuts and scrapes. It was safe to say that the human was repairing, but at a very slow rate. These humans, such a slow and primitive race they still were. But very brave, and Scar and his clan admired that.

Alexa breathed deeply, in and out, before finally opening her eyes and looking around her. The rest of the hunters were gone except for Scar, who was busy pressing buttons on his new detonator pack. She turned her head to look out the window once more. She had never said a word since boarding the ship, deciding it was unecessary when any form of communication between them would seem intolerable. He understood her silence. She respected his space. They were fine. But Lex felt a little discouraged assuming that due the alien's biology, he might instantly be male. Perhaps the predators were female and she could figure it out through watching their behavioural patterns or something...but then the ship's window to her right began to light up.

The sight caught her breath; this was not her solar system anymore.

As she rose to get up on her knees, Scar eyed her and took a step toward her before he realized what she was focused on. He turned his large frame to face the window and stared out into the view of this galaxy they had entered.

Stars and nebulas of orange and green, and poisonous yellow and dark brown clusters of moons stretched on forever. And circular bodies that looked like something out a bad Space movie exploded in her eyes.

Alexa didn't have any words. If this was the galaxy that Scar and his species came from, she wasn't that all surprised. It suited his nature and why they dressed as such. Although she inwardly wished they had done something about the colour scheme if their ship.

But at least for the remaining time she had left with this hunter and his highly advanced star cruiser, she had been worthy to see it all…!

Lex jolted awake.

Her body went rigid as she took a look around her bedroom in the dark, trying to remember where she was, and where she wasn't.

After a few more seconds of deep breathing, she pulled her head up slowly from the pillows in an attempt to ease her dizziness. It failed, as a large wave of dull pain ringed her brain and she went bending forward into the sheets.

"Another one?" she whispered slowly. "Damn."

It started a month ago, the dreams. She thought maybe it was normal for anyone who went through such a devastating event, to see flashes and images in their sleep of things that could've been and should've.

But it was the same scene replaying every night. And the scenes got longer. Looking out into the predators' space from their spaceship was the farthest she'd gone in her dreams – the thought did little to comfort her. The ship, the predators, understanding their conversation. The new solar system... Remembering all those vibrant and sickly yellowing stars and smoggy-looking air pockets around the oval-shaped planets…it seemed too real.

"It always seems too real."

Lex tightened her lips, blinking through the morning eye crust in her eyelids. She stared across the small room to where the small drawer sat. She knew inside the last shelf, the retractable warrior staff lay snug between two towels – it was all she could use until she bought something better.

Lex stared intently on the shelf's handle, thinking about the incredible weapon beyond it. If she was honest with herself (as she usually was, being so mature and decisive about her actions all her life), she had always felt a strange energy come off the staff. Especially when she went to sleep at night.

The dreams were getting stronger, getting more real, and putting itself in a pattern she couldn't decode.

…Or could she…?

She squeezed the folds of her bed sheets, feeling a strange sensation of fear and adrenaline wash over her, much too early for 5:37 in the morning.

Whatever this all meant, the weapon had something to do with all of it. And it looked like it wasn't going to stop until she figured it all out.

She just wish she had more time than she increasingly began to feel.

I know it doesn't have much of a plot, and the end kinda sounded incomplete but I wanted to get an idea across and I kind of liked the outcome of it. I don't have a second chapter ready because this is where I wanted end it, but if you have any suggestions or want to read more give me a comment and we'll see what I can do! Sorry if I miss any spelling errors. Anyways, thanks again for the reading and until I write again, happy reading!

Much love, Abby~