neomoon585's very late request from a few months ago. Here you go, Amiga! Sorry it took me so long!
Akela, Chilly, Blue, Kodiak, Spirit, Akela Jr., Winter, Misty, Flutter, Blizzard, and Snowene belong to neomoon585. I only own Rachel, Kaylee, and Estrella. Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man Of Action.
Some spoilers for the Ben 10 Alien Force episode: "Save The Last Dance".
Used To The Unusual
Akela was noticing how strange he had been feeling the past few mornings and how much he was craving metal. It had taken a lot to keep away from any refineries when there was metal being melted down and he felt very tired. Rachel noticed it one morning when he came into the kitchen, looking wrung out.
"Akela? Are you okay?" she asked the Necrofriggian. "You look like you didn't sleep at all last night."
"Not really," he admitted and then groaned, holding his stomach, alarming the owner of the Grant Mansion.
"Akela?" she asked, a note of alarm in her voice that grew to a shriek when he suddenly grabbed her and pinned her to the floor, his eyes narrowed dangerously as his breath began to show.
"Why should a human worry about me and my brood?" he said to her.
Rachel looked at him fearfully and then gently touched his arm. "Akela, you're part of the family," she said. "And I worry when one of my brothers isn't feeling well."
Akela suddenly blinked and shook his head. "Why…am I…?" he then stopped short. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
The horror in his voice made her realize he was afraid something was wrong. "I'm okay," she said. "A bit stunned, but okay."
"Rachel, I…I'm so sorry," he said. "I just…felt protective for some odd reason."
She looked at him and then happened to glance at the calendar and realized something. "Akela, is the weather causing you to feel off?" she asked him.
He looked up at her and his eyes widened suddenly. "It's spring, right?" he asked her.
"Yes," she said slowly.
"Oh, dear," he said.
"Akela?" she asked.
"The Omni-worms," he said. "They not only made me an adult, they sped up something else too."
Rachel remembered him telling her about that when he and the others had first met and then it dawned on her. "You're going to lay eggs soon," she said.
"I'm afraid so," he said. "That would explain why I'm craving metal."
The owner of the Grant Mansion gently patted his back. "There's a whole bunch of junk that the junkyards often give my uncles to make room for more junk," she said. "It's under the garage. You could eat that, I guess."
He looked at her. "You know why, right?" he said.
She nodded. "To make an incubator for the eggs," she said. "Ben went through that phase with his Necrofriggian form once."
Akela nodded and she put a hand on his shoulder. "If you need anything, just come to one of us, okay?" she said. "We're here to help you, Akela."
"I know," he said. "But be warned. I may not be completely lucid all the time."
"Mood swings?" she asked and he nodded. "Human women go through that too when they're pregnant. Kaylee almost drove Tetrax up the wall with her mood swings when she was pregnant with Estrella."
Akela chuckled and then went down to eat some metal. Rachel called the others and alerted them of the situation, so they would know what to expect.
For the most part anyway.
For about two weeks, Akela had a difficult time controlling his mood swings and his cravings for metal grew alarmingly. Many times, Four Arms and Whampire had to restrain Akela when the mood swings grew a bit violent. The others had to often remember that Akela was just going through a rough time right then and hoped that it would soon be over as they hated to see the Necrofriggian in such a state.
Rachel was the most worried and often would talk to Akela in the evenings to help him calm down so he could sleep.
"I appreciate that you're helping me, Rachel," he said one night when it was almost time for him to lay his eggs. "But I must be driving everyone insane right now."
"Mostly freaking us out," Rachel said lightly and he saw she was trying to lighten up the mood a bit and he chuckled.
"I learned a human custom today. Many parents name their children before they're born," he said. "I think…I might like to do that."
"What names do you have in mind?" she asked.
"Well, for the boys: Chilly, Blue, Kodiak, Spirit, and Akela Jr.," he said. "And for the girls: Winter, Misty, Flutter, Blizzard, and Snowene." He then paused and looked at Rachel. "Do you think that's odd? Me naming them before they arrive?"
Rachel looked at him. "What do you mean?" she asked. "Like you said, humans do it all the time."
"But it's not normal for my kind," he said. "You must think I'm crazy."
She shook her head. "No, not crazy," she said. "Just…interesting."
He looked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked her.
She smiled. "That an alien who's expecting would be willing to try an Earth method for a change," she said. "Then again, I've seen so much of it in the past few years that some things just don't surprise me anymore."
"You've seen something this unusual before?" asked Akela.
"Not quite," said Rachel. "But I've seen enough to now be used to the 'unusual', as you put it. Then again, unusual is fine, because it means we can be a family, a family that others think is impossible, but those in this family embrace it."
Akela thought about her words. "So, you're not bothered that this family is unusual?" he asked her.
"No way," she said. "By the way, the names are good too."
He smiled and they both went off to bed.
It was two days later when Akela went down to the junk room and began eating metal like crazy before spewing out the now crushed and molten metal on a clear spot of floor and began building the incubator. It took him an hour before it was ready and, seeing that he had privacy, he laid the eggs and was pleased to see there were ten of them altogether and five were males. He now brought his wings around him so that they formed a cloak and kept a watchful eye on them, making sure he was there in case something went wrong.
Rachel hadn't seen Akela that morning and was worried about him when afternoon came and he wasn't around. She then thought about the junk room and quickly headed down there, hoping he was okay.
She saw a huge metal dome and he was kneeling down at the top of it, seemingly watching something closely. "Akela?" Rachel called to him and he turned to her. "Are you okay?"
Feeling protective of his eggs, he spread out his wings warningly and hissed at her, making her jump back. "Whoa, easy," she said, trying to calm him down. "Easy, Akela. I'm not armed. I won't hurt you or the eggs."
He hissed again and pounced on her. She let him and let out a pained sound when her back collided with the ground and she looked up into his narrowed eyes. Seeing that talking wasn't helping, she gently touched his arm and rubbed her hand up and down in a soothing gesture and to her relief, the Necrofriggian was actually calming down and slowly let her up before giving his head a shake and looking at her with concern. "It's okay, Akela," she said. "You were just protecting your children, like any loving, protective parent would."
He would have spoken, but suddenly they both heard tapping on the roof of the dome and Rachel gasped a little. "Does that mean they've hatched?" she asked.
"Not yet," he said. "But the eggs need a way to get out of the slime before the hatchlings suffocate."
He then flew up to the roof of the dome and Rachel followed, using her jumpsprings in her shoes to reach the top just as Akela showed a strength she didn't think a Necrofriggian could show and bashed a small part of the dome in, creating a hole about the size of a large serving plate. They both watched for a moment and then saw nine blue bubbles about the size of a kiddie's basketball come up from the warm slime and shape-shift into miniature versions of Akela. Rachel couldn't help cooing over the little ones. "Aww, they're so cute," she cooed, watching the little Necrofriggians look at her and then at Akela. He pointed to five of them and called each one of them the name he selected for the males. Rachel noticed the baby males were larger than the baby females and watched Akela name the four girls and they watched them fly out of the mansion and into space. Rachel had a sudden thought.
"Wait," she said. "Akela, you have ten names picked, five male and five female. Where's the fifth female baby then?"
Realizing she was right, he got a horrified look on his face and looked back at the slime that was settling back into the incubator. "I don't see her," he said, sounding worried.
Rachel suddenly heard a faint cry and a tapping sound to her right. "Here!" she said and pounced on the spot, trying to pull away the metal, but she couldn't get a grip. Akela flew in and gave her just a second to move back before he smashed down hard on the section of dome where they could hear the little one now squeaking fearfully.
"The slime is suffocating her!" said Akela. "She's falling back into it!"
With only the little one's wellbeing in mind, Rachel dove her hands into the slime, quickly moving her hands in a circle, feeling blindly for the little one. She suddenly felt something brush against her hand and she moved her hand slowly around the object and caught it in her hands. The object felt round and she quickly pulled it out of the slime, but the incubating slime stuck to the egg and the twenty-two-year-old woman quickly ran to the sink nearby, thanking the Good Lord that she had insisted that Jury Rigg, Eatle, and Grey Matter install sinks and bathrooms in each room on the lower levels. Because right now, this little one's life depended on Rachel getting the slime off so that the baby girl alien could hatch.
Using warm, but not too hot, water, Rachel gently ran her hands around the round bubble to wash off the slime and it thankfully came off. She then dried it off with a nearby towel. No sooner had she finished drying it off, the little Necrofriggian shape-shifted in Rachel's hands, but then curled up and shivered. Thinking quickly, Rachel took off her sweatshirt and wrapped the little one in it. She and Akela watched with worried expressions as the little one finally stopped shivering and opened her eyes, letting out a cute squeak. Rachel breathed a sigh of relief.
"We got her," she said, handing the little one to her father. Akela cradled his daughter to his chest and she snuggled into his hug, resting her head on his shoulder, making Rachel coo again at the cute scene. "This is just too precious for a picture," she said.
Akela chuckled and felt his daughter give him a kiss on the cheek. "Daddy," she said.
Rachel gasped in both happiness and amazement and he froze in shock. "Did…?" he asked and then his voice stopped.
The owner of the Grant Mansion nodded. "Yeah, she did," she said. "There was one more girl name. Winter."
The stunned father finally unfroze. "Yes, Winter," he said and then looked down at his baby girl. "That will be her name." He then looked at Rachel. "I know you already have two alien nieces…,"
"And Winter now makes three alien nieces," said Rachel, smiling.
Akela also smiled as he hugged Rachel with one arm and she hugged him back as they both hugged little Winter, who yawned cutely and fell asleep.
The news spread fast and everyone was happy to have a new niece and the younger kids were happy to have a new cousin. Rachel smiled as she watched her family and realized she couldn't have been happier to have such a loving family as the one she had and was proud to call her family.
This was fun to write. Also, 'estrella' means 'star' in Spanish. If you want to read about Kaylee when she was expecting Estrella, that story is called "Have Hope".
Please leave a review, but no flames!
GoldGuardian2418