Did you really think I'd leave it at that? I might be a little fucker, but I'm not evil. The last chapter was just a little… surprise I'd thought I'd give you. Anyways, Here's the REAL ending of A Xenomorphs Tale. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy. Because this one's the last.
I wake up in a room unknown to me, stuck down by the waist with hive resin to a table of sorts, like an old stone slab kind of one. For a moment, I can't remember what happened that ended me up here. I examine my chest to find Hive resin that's been woven to make a bandage and wrapped around me. I also notice a small form sleeping soundly, wrapped around my arm. I try to adjust myself without moving my arm so I can examine it better. I fail and it wakes up, staring at me for a few moments.
'Hello,' It, she, says. For some reason, I feel strangely close to her. The same as I do with Dauntless. Upon thinking about her, I wonder where she is. If something like this has happened, She'd never leave my side. My attention is pulled back to the little Xenomorph when she moves a little bit, still firmly attached to my arm.
"Hi," I reply, still confused as to why I feel so attached to this Xeno.
b'Her name's Vii, short for Vitalia,'/b Comments my split.
'And how do you know her?'
'Are you talking to me?' I didn't realise that I'd said that 'aloud'.
"Hmm? Oh, no sorry. Just thinking to myself."
b'She's the one who came out of you. Since you were very much unconscious, I took the liberty of naming her.'/b
'Came out of me?'
b'You don't remember?'/b
'No. Should I?'
b'This should help.'/b With this, flashes of scenes play out in my mind, accompanied my pain. They're of me, on my back as immense pain shoots out from my chest. It's enough for me to remember the rest. Well, what I wasn't unconscious for. Basically, the most painful thing I've ever experienced. And the thing that caused it is currently wrapped around my arm. The same thing I now feel an incredible love for as well as the need to protect the little thing.
'Are you okay?' Vii asks. I look at her, and it's safe to say, there's a helluva lot of emotions running through my mind at the moment. I turn to lay on my side, pulling Vii close. She immediately wraps herself around me.
"I'm okay. A bit tired and sore. But, okay. So, how are you."
'Well, I feel bad for hurting you.' I give her a gentle squeeze.
"Oh, It's okay, I-" She cuts me off with a huge yawn.
'Goodnight dad.' My heart stops at her words, metaphorically, this time, as I realise that, that's what I am now: A father. I smile at the thought
"Sleep tight." I look down to surprisingly find her asleep. I smile even more before falling asleep myself. My last thoughts being; 'I'm a father.' Over the next few days, I recover, spending the most time with Vii, the rest with Sarah. After about a week, I begin to worry why Dauntless hasn't come visit yet since I'm still bed-bound. I was let out but I did something I wasn't supposed to.
"I'd say that you'd be able to walk around today. But take it easy. we wouldn't want you damaging yourself any more than you already are," Sarah says to me, knocking me out of my thoughts.
"What? Sorry, I was in a world of my own." She huffs at me, before carefully helping me to my feet.
"You can walk around today but take it easy. No running around after people. We know what happened last time."
"Right, yeah. No tag with Vii."
"What even possessed you to even do that?"
"Well, I wanted to do more with her than lie down, talk and sleep."
"There are other things you can do with her than running around after each other. Why not tell her a story or something."
"I suppose. Where's Dauntless by the way?"
"She's around. She wasn't allowed to come and see you though."
"Why not?" I get a bit annoyed when I hear this.
"Because the Queen wanted you and Vii to bond. It's something that's supposed to happen when a host survives, apparently." I let out a long sigh at this. She's worried sick, I can feel it, literally.
"Well, can I see her now?" She pauses to think for a moment.
"I guess there's no harm in it." I quietly celebrate. I've been dying to see her. At that, we leave the small room I've been confined to for a week. It doesn't take me long to find Dauntless, who is asleep fairly close to where I was staying. I walk up and sit down beside her, making her stir. She looks at me, still quite sleepy.
'Hey James,' She says.I smile at her.
"Hey, sleepy head. Glad to see me?" She looks at me with a sleepy-confused expression. It quickly changes as she suddenly wakes up.
'OH MY GOD, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A DREAM!' She yells, wrapping her arms around me.
"Broken bones," I painfully wheeze, she quickly releases me from her iron grip hug.
'Sorry. I'm just really happy to see you.'
"It's okay. Besides, the feeling's mutual." With that, she pulls me into a less tight hug.
'I wonder if this is a dream.' I laugh at this.
"Well, this should help to clear up that thought." With that, I pull her face in front of mine, before giving her a long kiss. After, she wraps her arms around me once again.
'I didn't mean to say that out loud,' She says with a small, embarrassed giggle.
"No worries."
'I missed you so much! How are you feeling?'
"I'm okay. My chest is a little tight and I'm quite stiff but mostly fine."
'Dad, who's that?' Asks Vii, who, up until now, I've forgotten is here. My heart skips a few beats again when she says that.
"This is Dauntless."
'Are you the one who made dads' bed?' For a moment, I'm confused at what she means, then, I figure it out.
"You built that?" I ask Dauntless.
'Me and Ares. We used a table as a frame.'
"Well, you did a good job, it was quite comfortable." We lie down and she smiles at me before snuggling down beside me, head along my stomach and she quickly falls asleep. After I get comfy, I beckon over Vii, which she happily obliges to. She snuggles in on my other side, her head against the side of her head since she's quite a bit smaller than me, or any Xenomorph, for that matter. She too quickly falls asleep, me following shortly after.
b*Time skip*/b
It's been about two days since I was let out. It's been good. Sarah checking up on me every three hours, much to my annoyance, spending time with Dauntless and Vii, who is quite possibly the cutest little thing I've ever seen. I caught up with Ares and Aran too. Today, Sarah gave me the go ahead for leaving the hive, granted, I'll be incredibly careful and not to wander off. To which, I joke,
"Do you really want to bother telling me that? I'm gonna get distracted by something shiny and end up getting lost, like those birds who make their nests out of reflective things." She smiles a bit.
"I just want to make sure you are safe. I don't want all my hard work going down the drain. And keeping you alive is a bonus too," She remarks, to which I laugh.
"To be honest, I'm amazed that I haven't fallen apart by now."
"Like I said, hard, good quality work."
"In all seriousness, I'll be careful. Besides, I have an awesome Praetorian to look after me. Isn't that right Dauntless?"
'I'll look after him while he's fragile,' She replies after walking over, wrapping her arms around me and planting a soft kiss on my cheek. 'In more ways than one,' She then adds slyly. One of the best things about being linked to another the way that Dauntless and I are is that you can have even more private conversations with one another. Less chance of slipping up and saying something embarrassing to everyone in the room. With that, we head off to our bed. One of the other things Sarah said to do is get rest. Lots and lots of rest. It wasn't the most ideal way I would like to spend my day, mostly because it reminds me of how lazy I was before... all this... happened. Something I hoped that I'd be able to improve on. And I did, but this kinda defeats the purpose.
'Jaaaames? Helloooo?" Dauntless says, giving my face a gentle pat. It snaps me out of my thoughts. I notice that she has her annoyed face on.
"Hmm?"
'Did you hear a word I said?'
"No, sorry. Went into a world of my own there for a moment. And at that, I banish the thoughts of my old life to the back of my mind. I will dwell on that later, right now, there's something, or rather someone, who is more important at the moment. "You okay?" I ask, a little worried since she rarely has her grumpy face on. She sighs.
'It's nothing. And, as I was saying, I'm really glad you're back.'
"And so am I. But what's wrong?"
'Really, it's nothing.'
"Come on, what's go ya grumps?" I ask, trying to lighten her mood a bit.
'James. I'm fine. It's nothing.' The moment she says it, I know she's lying. She never uses my name like that. But, I leave it, if she doesn't want to say. then that's that.
"Okay then. Just remember, if anything's ever got you down, you can tell me."
'Of course!' She then sighs, 'It's just tha-' In that moment, A creature with a terrifying amount of energy hurtles towards me at breakneck speeds, and then stops dead in her tracks inches from my face.
"Hey Vii," I say, my breath wavering slightly after seeing my life flash before my eyes, terrified that she wouldn't stop and that she'll barrel through my still brittle, healing bones.
'Hey!' She then says, right into my face. She's smaller than the others, enough that she's comparable to a seven-year-old. Sarah and I have made some theories, the strongest being that she simply absorbed more of my D.N.A. Although, that doesn't explain why she's a girl considering that the gender of the Xeno is usually the same as the host. And as well as being as small as a seven-year-old, she's as energetic as one and has the same mind set. It's actually quite amusing seeing a Xenomorph much much smaller than normal race around a full sized one, the other not being able to catch her. And although it isn't the most traditional way to have a child, I'm determined to see it through.
"Hi, sweetheart. Would you mind backing up, you're a little close." She does.
'Will you play with me? I'm bored.'
"What do you want to play?"
'Let's play tag! It's funny watching you try to catch me,' she says with a giggle, making me chuckle a bit.
"I would love to love, but I'm still quite sore. Besides, we wouldn't want a repeat of last time, now would we?" At this, her mood dips.
'Okay,' She then says, a lot less enthusiastic. It saddens me to see her like this. Enough that it makes me want to, despite my quite damaged ribs.
"Why don't we do something else?" This makes her cheer up a bit.
'Like what?' At this, I ponder on what we could do. Before I can make a decision, Dauntless chimes in,
'Why don't I tell you how James and I met?'
'YEAH!' Vii yells enthusiastically. Although, I cringe when I hear Dauntless say that. The way we met isn't exactly the most cheerful of stories.
'Don't worry, I'll... bend the truth to make it a bit happier,' Dauntless says to me on our own private link. At this, I relax.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." With that, I lean back into Dauntless while Vii snuggles into me. Then, being in direct physical contact with one another, we set up our own private link, one that only Dauntless, Vii and I are included in. Another hive-mind perk that comes in handy.
'So. One day, I was jumping across the rooftops of the colony that James used to live in with his mum when-'
'What's a colony?' Vii interrupts.
'A colony is a place where a lot of humans live in their own houses, think of each house as a small hive with about three or four people in each one. They do this because sometimes when they move to a new place, it isn't able to support them so they set up their own fields full of food. But, some times, if where they move to is suitable for them then They'll just move in without changing anything. Now, no more interrupting.' Vii nods and Dauntless continues the story.
'So, as I was saying, I was jumping along the roofs of the houses when I felt something I didn't expect. I felt James' sadness. Now, don't ask me how but he was somehow transmitting his emotions through his mind into others. Anyways, I decided I would ask him what was wrong and he explained that he just lost something that was very very close to him. Now, I knew how that felt since I had lost Sarah, who was my host, as James in yours. And so, I talked to him about it, we developed a friendship and then I invited him back to our hive. And then He stayed for a while and when he went home, he was in big trouble. Needless to say, His mother wasn't the greatest fan of the idea of having one of our kind as a friend. And it was that night that he said that he really liked me and then We fell in love. Then a bunch of other things happened, but that's a story for another time. And then we ended up here.' By now, I was edging towards tears, I didn't realise how much all that still affected me.
'Wow. Are you okay?' Vii asks me.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just brought up some sad memories is all," I reply.
'Oh, come here,' Dauntless says, wrapping me in a tight but gentle hug. I quickly return said hug, and then a moment later, Vii joins in. Needless to say, this is one of the happiest sad moments in my life. After the hug, I let out a long sigh.
"Thanks," I say to the two of them.
'It's okay. As long as it helped?' Vii then says. Witha nod, I answer her question,
"It did. Now, run along, I want to have a chat with Dauntless." With a nod and a final small squeeze, she darts off, quickly disappearing from view. I turn to face Dauntless.
"Thank you. For putting it that way."
'It's okay. Besides, you were about to crap your pants, not being able to think of anything else to do, weren't ya?' To be perfectly honest with me, she isn't that far from the truth.
"Yeah," I answer with a small chuckle. "And thank you as well. For staying with me through everything. It couldn't have been easy for you." She pulls me into another hug and she presses her forehead to mine, sending all the love, comfort and every other good emotion through the deep connection.
'Don't thank me for that. I wouldn't have it any other way.' With that, I push away from her before locking our lips together in a long kiss.
'I love you, so much.' I say to her through our link. With that, we lie down, still kissing for a long while before We stop so I can actually sleep. Another thing Sarah told me to get a lot of, not that I mind. At least, when I'm with Dauntless or Vii, or even both. My last thought being how this is probably the happiest time of my life, despite not being with my family anymore, or at least not my old one now. Besides, I have a much bigger one to fill their role, but never to assimilate them.
YESSSS, eight pages, pretty sure that's my longest chapter yet! And it was going to be even longer! A lot longer, now that I really think about it. That's why I'm putting the rest into another chapter, or two XP.
Now, I know that some of you are probably wondering about Cato. Don't worry, I have a plan for what's gonna happen to him. In fact, why don't you try to guess what's gonna happen, It's probably gonna surprise you when I get it out. That leads me to the next thing. I'm moving. Again. So that means, that, starting tomorrow, I probably won't be able to do any writing and for however long it takes me and my mum to pack everything up and move it in her, literal, midget car. And, I'm starting back at school next month so my priorities are gonna shift dramatically. It doesn't help that because I nearly failed all my exams bar science, which I aced, that I'm getting my laptop and phone taken away from me and being replaced with one that's like, if not an old Nokia one. So that sucks. But anyhow, that' a problem for another time and I've managed to write half a page of Authors notes. Wow, I never thought I'd do that. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed reading this one and I'll see you in the next. Bye!