Companion piece to Guilty, this time through the eyes of Scar inside the pyramid.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alien Versus Predator, the books or any of the original films. This piece is purely for recreational purposes.

Predator Language 101:

Pauk – Fck

Kainde Ameda – Hard Meat (Aliens)

Note of thanks to my beta reader: Abbey Normal, thank you!

Guardian

He watched the male Ooman drag her away up the stairs. His grasp was tight around her arm as she tried to go back to the sick one. The one glaring at him with eyes housed inside such a pitiful Ooman husk.

He wanted to interfere, to give them time to get away from him. There was honour in that. Although he was sick, his body dying, he still used his waning strength to try and stop him, a Yautja…how humorous, that he thought he could stop a fully grown Yautja.

He should have left him alone. He had given him the chance to die without pain but he wouldn't leave him alone, he got between a Yautja and his prey. For that he died.

Anger coursed through him as he stalked the two Oomans. They had his weapon, how dare they take his weapon! Did they think to cripple him? Leave him to the Kainde Ameda hard meat drones? It did them no good, they could not use it. Even the female couldn't use it.

Pathetic, how the males could allow the females to become so weak, so dependant on them. It was dishonourable; if there had been a female Yautja on the hunt she would have killed such pathetic males. To think that the females could be so defenceless.

It was a shame.

Female Yautja had always been the stronger, although many did not want to hunt. They usually felt no need to when their mate would provide for them and their young, although some did hunt, for the thrill and the honour.

Males though, if they wanted the chance to mate, had to hunt, to prove they were worthy of protecting and providing for their mate. It was an honourable way of life, where the strong survived to protect their race. The humans held no such concepts.

The way that male Ooman had just dragged her away, he had not asked her, not told her anything, he had just dragged her away from the aged male who she obviously had wanted to help. Maybe he had been an important Ooman…if he had been then he would feel the regret of taking a leader from them.

For although they were a physically weak race, the Oomans were not the dumb cattle that they had been taught to expect. They were more intelligent then he had expected, at least the two who were running were. They had survived the Kainde Ameda hard meat where two of his clan brothers had not.

He was brought up short when he saw the broken bridge before him. It was a wide break in the stone bridge and as he looked down he gave an almost awed click of his mandibles…he could not see the bottom. He frowned and with an annoyed clicking noise he looked back but could find no other way in which the Oomans could have gone, had they fallen? Had the male been stupid enough to drag them both over the edge in his flight?

Maybe he had given the Oomans a bit too much credit.

No, they could not have been that stupid, and if he looked closely enough he could see the dust settling around the other end of the bridge…ahhhh they had jumped then. Though they had obviously weakened the stones around the edges of the Bridge. It would be a hard jump, but he could make it.

There had been three doorways and it looked like he had chosen the right one. Before him stood the Ooman female, alone and shaking in obvious fear.

She had lost her male companion. He almost snorted, how weak. He had had the looks of a prime Ooman male and yet he had been captured by the Kainde Ameda.

At least he would be able to get his weapon back, though he could not kill her. It went against the rules of the hunt, though he could leave her, she was of no consequence to him, if she was taken by the Kainde Ameda then she…

Pauk!

It would mean one more Kainde Ameda for him to fight and there were already many more than he would have liked to take on alone. He would get his weapon back and see if she proved herself worthy of being saved. Otherwise he would kill her, keep her from a more painful and dishonourable death.

It seemed they were the only options. If he left her she would be a simple enough host to catch and if she came with him she would be a hindrance, but it would mean one less Kainde Ameda likely to take him down, but for her to be with him, she would have to go on the hunt and to go on the hunt you had to prove yourself. In the way of the Yautja.

By making a kill.

He growled at her, catching her attention as he watched her slight form turn around slowly, her fragile arms shaking, so thin, so easily broken. He snorted once more, he did not think she would make a kill, but he would give her the benefit of the doubt, and see.

He watched her run beside him, the outer protection of the Kainde Ameda's head adorning her arm as a trophy should, the spear held in her other hand, the deadly tail tied tightly to it.

She had proven herself a worthy hunter.

Despite her weakness she had managed to kill what his clan brothers had not. For one of her species, she was a rarity, one worthy of being by his side amongst the Kainde Ameda. She had fought with surprising skill for one her size. She barely stood at 5 and a half ft tall yet she had managed to put that miniscule weight into killing the drone.

But it was not her size, or even her seemingly hidden talents in the way of the hunt that made him turn his head to watch her every so often.

It was the lack of fear in her eyes when she looked at him which made him want to protect her, for it would be a great shame if she were to die without the mark of the blooded upon her cheek.

It was a strange thing for him to be looked upon without fear, especially by an Ooman, for even amongst his race Yautja of the same rank or lower looked upon him in fear, for he was strong for his age. A mere 53 years of life and he already had the favour of the elder of his clan.

She was so much weaker then his race, yet she had hunted, had won and looked at him like an equal, although he did still have some misgivings about that.

But she was his only companion in the lair of the enemy, and for that he would protect her.

He would be her Guardian.